Minecraft, fixing the "Multiplayer is disabled. Please check your Microsoft account settings." frustrating issue

minecraft-child-account.md

I have a Microsoft Family account and have my daughter as one of the family members.

Whenever she tries to play Minecraft (Java Edition) with us, it pops up something like the following:

"Multiplayer is disabled. Please check your Microsoft account settings."

I tried all kinds of things found online. They kept saying to go to the Xbox Privacy and online safety screen, but I couldn't find the "You can play with people outside of Xbox Live" and "You can join multiplayer games" settings. Well, that's because I needed to click on the "Xbox Series ... and Windows 10 devices Online Safety" tab.

Here's a direct link. You will need to replace the "GAMERTAGHERE" with your child's gamer tag. You need to be logged in under your (parental) account, not the child's.

https://account.xbox.com/en-us/settings?gamertag=GAMERTAGHERE&activetab=main:privilegetab

Another way to get there:

1. Go here: https://account.xbox.com/en-us/settings
2. Log in with your own account if you need to
3. Click on your child's profile (should be right below the "Privacy & online safety" heading

Now:

1. Click on "Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Windows 10 devices Online Safety" (important!)
2. You should see: " can: ... You can join multiplayer games Allow | Block"
3. Turn on everything in that list, or at least the first (You can play with people outside of Xbox Live) and the second to last (You can join multiplayer games)
4. In the Minecraft launcher: click on their name, click Log out, and then restart the entire computer (seriously!)
5. Now open the Minecraft launcher and log in under their name

If this helped you, comment below. :-)

I had the same situation and it was driving me and my son nuts. It turns out that the Xbox privacy settings between an account before joining the family and after joining the family can get out of sync (or some other weird state).

What in the end solved it for me (at least I think) was:

Leave my sons account from the family.

• Go into Xbox privacy settings and untoggle all the privacy settings. Save.
• Toggle all the privacy settings. Save again.
• Join the account to the family again.
• Logoff the account in the Minecraft launcher
• Logon again and now multiplayer is working.

I did notice that after he decided to install an older version of Minecraft(java) multiplayer was greyed out again, but I haven't researched that one yet.

Xbox (chat) support was actually helpful getting me here.

Note: In microsoft family you can also set Age rating for games, Not sure if its related but I have that set to "any age" as well.

I've tried everything. No luck for me. I am not sure what else to do here. I even took all possible restrictions out and made him over the age of 21. Nothing helps. Bedrock is working fine, but Java Edition no clue why is still grey out.

@jmartinez5120 Try support if all of the steps above didn't work -- they may be able to help. But only if the steps above really didn't work -- they seem to work for most people!

1. Go to this link: https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/request/new
2. MAKE SURE it shows minecraft.net in the address bar! Avoid phishing scams!
3. Fill out the form -- category would be Account Support and subject is Microsoft Sign-In Questions
4. Optionally, add a screenshot of the kid's account with the grayed out multiplayer

For my son's account I had to log out of the XBox account, log in as me, then log out and in as him again.

Multiplayer is now enabled.

What a hellish UX!