This article explains how to find your way home when you are lost in Minecraft. If you're not ready to leave your old home and start a new community in untouched nature, there are a few tricks you can try to get back to your home.
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Using Generic Strategies
Step 1. Suicide yourself
If you have the bed you slept in the last time in your house, the easiest way to get home is to jump off a cliff, in order to die and be reborn in your home.
- If you are playing in Creative mode you need to temporarily enable that survival.
- This method won't work if you haven't slept in a bed yet, or if the last bed you slept in isn't in your home.
- If you are carrying valuable resources that you don't want to lose, you can build a chest to store them, then check your coordinates by pressing F3 (desktop) or by consulting a map (console or pocket / PE editions). When you are reborn, you can go back to those coordinates and retrieve the items.
Step 2. Look for familiar landscape features
Unfortunately, in many cases the best strategy to find your way home is to retrace your steps to a point you recognize, then return to your residence from there. Look for the following items, which are among the most recognizable:
- Mountains.
- Specific biomes (such as the jungle).
- Presence of water (or its absence).
- Automatically generated structures (such as villages).
Step 3. Build a compass
The compass points to the initial generation point of the world. If you built your home close to that point, you can use this method to get closer to your home.
Even if your home is not close to the original point of creation, the compass can still help you orient yourself and recognize some elements of the landscape
Step 4. Teleport to a safe location
If you are playing on a server where the host has allowed teleportation, you may have the option to move to another player's location. This will help you find your home if the other character is around.
You can teleport in single player mode as well, but to do so you need to know the coordinates of your home or take a guess (although you will rarely succeed)
Method 2 of 3: Using Minutor on Desktop
Step 1. Learn how this method works
Minutor is a free program that creates a visual representation of your Minecraft world. If your house is saved in the game files, opening the world on Minutor you should be able to see it and find out its coordinates.
Unfortunately, you can't use Minutor to find your home in the pocket and console versions of Minecraft
Step 2. Open the Minutor website
Go to https://seancode.com/minutor/ with your computer's browser.
Step 3. Select your operating system
Under the "Download" header at the top of the page, click the link for your operating system (for example Windows installer). You will download the Minutor installation file.
On Mac, be sure to click the link OSX.
Step 4. Install Minutor
The procedure required varies depending on the operating system you are using (Windows or Mac).
- Windows: double-click on the Minutor file, then follow the wizard until the installation is complete.
- Mac: Open the Minutor DMG file, allow the program to run if prompted, drag the Minutor app icon to the "Applications" folder and follow the on-screen instructions.
Step 5. Open the Minecraft launcher
To do this, double-click on the Minecraft icon, which looks like a block of land with grass on it.
Step 6. Click Startup Options
This tab is located in the upper right part of the window.
Step 7. Click the gray "Advanced Settings" button
It is located in the upper right part of the window. Press it and it will turn green.
- If the button is green, the advanced settings are already active.
- If necessary, click OK to confirm the decision before proceeding.
Step 8. Click Latest version in the center of the window
Step 9. Open the Minecraft installation folder
To do this, click the green arrow on the right side of the "Game Folder" section. This will open the folder where Minecraft stores files, including saved worlds.
Step 10. Open the "Saves" folder
To do this, double-click it. It should be at the top of the window.
On Mac, skip this step
Step 11. Copy the path
You can copy the address of the Minecraft "Saves" folder (aka "path") like so:
- Windows: Click on the address bar at the top of File Explorer to select the path, then press Ctrl + C to copy it.
- Mac: Hold Control while clicking the "Saves" folder, hold down ⌥ Option, then click Copy [folder] as Path in the menu that appears.
Step 12. Open Minutor
Type minutor in the menu Start
(Windows) or on Spotlight
(Mac), then click on Minutor in the search results.
Minutor can close automatically the first time you open it after installation. In that case, close the program and then reopen it
Step 13. Click on File in the upper left corner of the window
A menu will appear.
On Mac, Files is located in the upper left corner of the screen
Step 14. Click on Open…
You will see this item among the top of the menu File. Press it and the "Open World" window will open.
Step 15. Enter the path you copied earlier
To do it:
- Windows: click on the address bar at the top of the "Open World" window to select its contents, then press Ctrl + V to paste the path you copied and press Enter.
- Mac: Click on the tab View, click Show Path Bar, click on the path bar and press Ctrl + V.
Step 16. Select a folder
Click once on the folder with the name of your world.
- If you don't see it, first click twice on the "Saves" folder.
- For example, if the world you can't find your home in is called "Marco's World", click on the "Marco's World" folder inside "Saves".
Step 17. Click Select Folder in the lower right corner of the window
The Minecraft map of that world will open on Minutor.
On Mac, click Choose.
Step 18. Search for your home
Think about the shape of your house from above, then click and drag the map until you find a point that remembers it. Given the size of many Minecraft maps, the search may take some time.
Once you have found your home, you can select it with the mouse to see the coordinates appear in the lower left corner of the window. At that point you can press F3 in the game to bring up the coordinates and reach your home.
Method 3 of 3: Avoid Getting Lost
Step 1. Build a bed and sleep as soon as you have a home
This will reset the creation point on the bed, so every time you die you will return home instead of the map's original creation point.
- Don't sleep in other beds until you know where your house is.
- If your bed is destroyed, you will have to build another one and sleep again.
Step 2. Determine the coordinates of your home
On desktop, you can press F3 (or Fn + F3 on some computers) to bring up the "X", "Y" and "Z" values of your location; if you get lost and your bed is destroyed (or you don't want to die), you can use the menu F3 to return to those coordinates.
In Minecraft pocket (PE) and console versions, you need to use a map to see your coordinates
Step 3. Use the flashlights to mark your movements
When you leave home, carry plenty of torches to leave behind. This allows you to create a path that takes you home if you go too far and get lost.
Placing torches also allows you to keep monsters away if you ever come back at night
Step 4. Build a lighthouse for your home
The headlights shoot beams of light into the air; you can usually see them from far away, so they help you find your home even if you go 250 blocks away.
If you don't want to gather all the resources needed to create a real lighthouse, you can achieve a similar result with an earthen tower and torches
Step 5. Check the position of the sun
The sun always rises in the same direction and sets in the opposite one. When setting out on a surface expedition, take note of the direction you are heading in relation to sunrise or sunset.
If you can't see the sun, plant a sunflower, which is always facing the current position of the sun
Step 6. Report your route while excavating
When you are underground, put the torches only on one side of the wall. For example, if all the torches are on the right side as you move forward, you know that to go back you will have to keep them on the left.
- You can also use wooden signs with more detailed instructions, or use colored wool as a code. For example, red wool can indicate "there is lava this way", while blue wool can indicate "towards the exit".
- If you are completely lost, you can dig straight to the surface and look for recognizable features of the landscape. However, doing so is risky, as the gravel or lava above you can kill you.
Step 7. Build paths in the streets you walk most often
If you travel between two points frequently, build a path with torches, fences, special blocks, or other identifying marks. As you develop your world better, you can build railways powered by mining carts to travel long distances, or create a series of roadside outposts to rest at night.
