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Portable Minecraft up to 1.14.4 and beyond: the clean, hassle-free way that works

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matteorizzo
Level 66 : High Grandmaster Artist
235
I like to keep everything out of my PC on a single, portable SDD, and Minecraft is no exception.

The official Minecraft launcher now roughly allows you to set a "game directory", but still, most of the data is stored locally.

There are a lot of tutorials about "portable Minecraft", but most of them are outdated and involve external utilities that are just useless if not dangerous (malwares).

But today we're going to fix that with a quick 7 steps tutorial. Straight to the point.

As of now I only know about Windows. I tried something similar on Mac but it didn't work, so if you know about that, DM me, thanks.

Here's the result: download.
(the link points to the old version, which may not work with the latest launcher, so follow the tutorial if you're having problems)


Here's the tutorial:

1. choose a folder for the game and add two sub folders: bin and data

2. get the latest Minecraft.exe from the site and put it in the bin folder

3. in the data folder create a .minecraft. folder: the second dot is important

4. if you already have Minecraft stuff installed, move those from the following directory to the new .minecraft folder

C:\Users\yournamehere\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft
5. now open the the Notepad from Start (don't just make a new text file!) and paste the following code

start "" "%CD%\bin\Minecraft.exe" --workDir "%CD%\data" --lockDir %CD%\data\.minecraft
6. save it as "minecraft.bat" with "All files" selected (important), in your game main folder (important)

7. now run the game using the minecraft.bat file and you're good to go!


Other important stuff

USB sticks are not made equal, and you need decent performance to run a game from an external device. Some tips to follow:

- size matters here: get enough space, at least 8GB

- get a fast USB, 3.0 is a must, check out for reviews, and get a stick with a high MB per second transfer rate

- format to exFAT (extended FAT, which is the new one) to handle big files and make the stick readable on both Windows and Mac or really anything. Just remember to make a backup of the data before cleaning the stick (you should know this by now :P)

Remember that you will still need Java installed.

Follow me on Twitter for updates about my work.
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2 Update Logs

Update #2 : by matteorizzo 09/15/2019 10:01:32 amSep 15th, 2019

+ added 1.14 compatibility
LOAD MORE LOGS

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SteveInSmash
11/01/2020 11:39 am
Level 1 : New Miner
history
I clicked the link and it doesn't work. any solutions?
also, what do you mean with getting the lastest minecraft.exe?
1
FluffyLLC
12/05/2019 11:11 am
Level 1 : New Miner
THIS IS AWESOME! Thank you so much for the help!

As a quick note to anyone else trying this, as of 12/5/19 `Minecraft.exe` has been changed to `MinecraftLauncher.exe`.

Consequently, the code in your `minecraft.bat` file should read:
`start "" "%CD%\bin\MinecraftLauncher.exe" --workDir "%CD%\data" --lockDir %CD%\data\.minecraft`
rather than
`start "" "%CD%\bin\Minecraft.exe" --workDir "%CD%\data" --lockDir %CD%\data\.minecraft`.

If this changes again please post another reply here to keep everyone updated.

Thanks! :) <3
2
BubblesAndSuch
01/07/2020 2:33 pm
Level 41 : Master Kitten
Just tried it Jan 2020 and it works. I needed a way to run a second account for server testing so I put it on a USB stick and it runs great.
1
Excall
03/08/2018 12:23 pm
Level 1 : New Miner
I know this is an old post but following the tutorial worked to launch the launcher but when I go to launch minecraft from the launcher it always crashes, any ideas or help?
1
matteorizzo
04/22/2018 7:28 am
Level 66 : High Grandmaster Artist
The tutorial is about making the launcher portable - everything that happens next (game crashing etc) has nothing to do with this method, you should just follow regular troubleshooting practices: after the launcher is launched, everything is the same as with a normally installed Minecraft.

So, to wrap it up: if the game crashes, it's not because of the portable launch.
1
KingAdam851
11/03/2017 1:44 pm
Level 19 : Journeyman Explorer
Great tutorial Ik it is a year old but i made my one work with OneDrive so i can use it on my school lap as well as my gaming rig. (Now know one will know im playing mc in class xD)
1
jlundq8578
01/26/2020 6:34 pm
Level 1 : New Miner
Until they read this post.
1
dogfaceboy
08/12/2016 1:11 am
Level 40 : Master Engineer
You should provide a download of a blank one that is setup but has never been run.
1
matteorizzo
08/12/2016 4:37 pm
Level 66 : High Grandmaster Artist
Never thought about that. Done.
1
dogfaceboy
08/13/2016 12:36 am
Level 40 : Master Engineer
So where is the download?
1

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