A Complete Guide to Fix Minecraft Exit Code 1 Error

Whenever you start up Minecraft, the game crashes with the error message “Process crashed with exit code 1”. That can be frustrating. But not to worry. You can use one of the methods below to fix the Minecraft exit code 1 error.

Try below methods in order. Move on to the next method if one doesn’t work for you.

Method 1: Change the working directory
Method 2: Reinstall Java
Method 3: Reinstall Minecraft
Method 4: Reset Windows

Method 1: Change the working directory

Having a special character (for example, an exclamation mark) in your Windows account username can cause the Minecraft exit code 1 error. If your Windows account has a special character, you can try the following steps to fix the error.

First, change the working directory of the Minecraft launcher to a path that doesn’t contain the special characters. To do so:

1) Right-click on the shortcut of Minecraft and select Properties to open the Properties window. If you don’t have a shortcut yet, you can create one by right-clicking on the “Minecraft.exe” file and selecting Create shortcut.

how to open minecraft properties window

2) At the end of the ‘Target’ bar, add the following:

–workDir %ProgramData%.minecraft

3) Click OK to save the changes.

4) Check to see if you can launch Minecraft without the exit code 1 error.

If the problem still persists, you’ll need to create a new Windows account without any special characters, which means only including A-Z, 0-9.

You can creating a new Windows account by following these steps:

1) On your keyboard, press Win+I (the Windows logo key and the I key) to open the Windows Settings window.

2) Select Accounts.

3) Click on Email & accounts on the left side, and then click on Add an account on the right side.

4) Select Outlook.com then you can create and add a Microsoft account with any email you may have. Or select other options corresponding with the email you have. For example, if you’d like to set up a Microsoft account with your gmail account, you can select Google.

5) Follow the on-screen instructions to add a Microsoft account.

6) Once the account is added, it will show up under ‘Add an account’.

After you create a new Windows account, you can try playing Minecraft with that account and check to see if the exit code 1 error still occurs.

If Method 1 doesn’t work for you, continue to try Method 2.

Method 2: Reinstall Java

The “Process crashed with exit code 1” error can be a Java error. To fix the problem, you can try reinstalling Java.

Firstly, you need to uninstall Java from your computer. Follow these steps:

1) Right-click on the Start menu button and select Apps and Features.

2) Scroll down and locate Java. Click on it and select Uninstall.

show how to uninstall java

3) Once uninstall is done, go to Java’s official website to download Java and install it on your computer again.

download the latest version of java

4) Check to see if the exit code 1 error persists.

If Method 2 doesn’t work for you, continue to try Method 3.

Method 3: Reinstall Minecraft

If reinstalling Java doesn’t work, you can try reinstalling Minecraft.

Firstly, you need to uninstall Minecraft from your computer. Follow these steps:

1) Open the Apps and Features window again.

2) Scroll down and locate Minecraft. Click on it and select Uninstall.

3) After the uninstallation process is complete, go to the Minecraft directory (the default directory could be “%APPDATA%\.minecraft“) and delete everything.

show the default directory of Minecraft

4) Install Minecraft again.

5) Check to see if the exit code 1 error persists.

Method 4: Reset Windows

The last resort to fix the error is to reset Windows. If you use Windows 10, you can follow below steps to do a reset for your computer.

Important: During the resetting procedure, you can choose to keep your personal files or erase them. Note that all apps, settings and other stuff will be wiped off after resetting.

1) Open the Windows Settings window again.

2) Select Update & Security.

3) On the left side, click on Recovery. On the right side, under Reset this PC, click on Get started.

4) You can select either Keep my files or Remove everything.

If you select Keep my files, your apps and settings will be removed except to your personal files. If you select Remove everything, everything will be removed including your apps, settings, personal files and photos.

5) Follow the instructions on the screen.

6) Once done, restart Windows and check to see if you can play Minecraft without the exit code 1 error.

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