Minecraft: Bedrock Edition 1.19.40 update begins rolling out to all players

A screenshot of Minecraft depicting a mangrove swamp and frogs
(Image credit: Mojang Studios | Twitter)

What you need to know

  • Minecraft 1.20 may be coming in the future, but the current version of Minecraft still has room to improve.
  • Mojang Studios is now releasing Minecraft: Bedrock Edition across all platforms.
  • The patch update features plenty of bug fixes, vanilla parity improvements, and technical updates.
  • There are also more improvements for Spectator Mode, mobile touch controls, and more.

The first proper Minecraft: Bedrock Edition update after the events of Minecraft Live 2022 is here, and it's packed with new bug fixes built on top of Minecraft 1.19 "The Wild Update." Regardless of where you play, the latest Minecraft update is coming to you with improvements across the board.

Mojang Studios is now releasing Minecraft: Bedrock Edition 1.19.40, a sizeable patch update that brings with it focused improvements to vanilla parity between Minecraft editions, dozens of various bug fixes and changes, some important technical updates for creators, and more. There aren't any new features in this release, as expected, but it's still an important update that further improves Minecraft, one of Xbox's best games, ahead of future releases.

During Minecraft Live 2022, Mojang Studios revealed the first details for Minecraft 1.20. The highly anticipated content update is in the early stages of development, with only a handful of new features under its belt. Still, the content update is expected to arrive sometime in 2023 with plenty of exciting new additions to Minecraft. Until then, players will have to content themselves with more iterative improvements and polish.

The full changelog for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition 1.19.40 includes:

Bug fixes

Blocks

  • Falling blocks no longer break when landing on double Slabs
  • Huge Fungus stems no longer replace partial blocks when growing from Nylium
  • Water texture on some waterlogged blocks no longer renders too bright when placed under other blocks
  • Fixed an issue which caused Redstone to output the wrong signal strength in certain configurations
  • Fixed several issues related to Sticky Pistons being used near world build limits
  • Breaking the block below a Snow-covered Flower now makes the Flower drop instead of the Snow Layer
  • Fixed Beacon block suddenly disappearing when seen from a distance
  • The book of an Enchanting Table now properly faces a nearby player
  • Temporarily reverted the changes to Dirt Path and Farmland collision changes, as well as Soul Sand and Mud blocks sinking while we iron out some bugs

Gameplay

  • Keyboard players can now sprint when moving diagonally
  • Grove biome is now classified as "cold" and Villagers spawned there will be the snow variant
  • Fixed fall damage accumulating while the player is in a Trapdoor block at the top of a bubble column
  • Fixed an issue causing player to move in the wrong direction after turning using VR snap camera movement

Graphical

  • Fixed an issue with screen position on Android devices

Items

  • Reverted the change that caused Arrows and Tridents to stop moving

Mobile touch controls

  • Fixed a bug where items could not be removed from the hotbar by moving them onto other items in Creative Inventory on mobile devices
  • Fixed an issue where the stack splitting progress bar was not aligned on touch mode
  • Adjusted layout of the touch toolbar and status effect icons based on user feedback
  • Fixed a bug that prevented scrolling through the Village trade list on mobile devices
  • When the auto-jumping feature is enabled, the player will now automatically jump out of water when moving toward a block on land
  • In Creative Mode while using touch input with Action Buttons off, the delay for breaking the first block has been increased to 800 milliseconds. This reduces the chance of breaking a block by accident
  • Added support for dragging and dropping with touch gestures in the inventory
  • Double tapping 'descend' now toggles off flight in Joystick touch control modes
  • Updated the positioning of status effects for Pocket UI
  • The inventory button for touch devices is now reset to its default appearance after closing the inventory
  • Fixed an issue where players couldn't swap unstackable items with touch controls
  • Improved the images for the three control schemes in the touch settings menu

Mobs

  • Baby Villagers will again accept flowers from Iron Golems
  • Guardians are no longer able to float in the air
  • Enabled tamed mobs that follow the player to follow the player through End Portals
  • Fixed an issue where Drowned could change held items when attacking
  • Fixed a bug where mobs with a long hit range could hit players through walls
  • Fixed a bug which caused Boats to disappear when pushed through a portal
  • When a mob is a passenger in a Boat, neither the Boat nor the mob are allowed to change dimension
  • NPCs can now have no name, hiding the nametag above their head

Performance & stability

  • Fixed a crash when using spawn eggs in peaceful worlds on PlayStation 4 Edition
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when an animated structure was loading from a Structure Block and the player left a dimension via portal
  • Fixed a bug which caused the game to crash when loading an Arrow with an unrecognized data value
  • Fixed a potential crash source in explosions
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when leaving a split screen session
  • Fixed an issue with Marketplace bundle prices not showing as free after purchasing
  • Added a Clear Cache button in Storage Settings for all platforms
    • This button clears contents of Marketplace folders (but not worlds) and might help alleviate issues downloading content
  • Fixed an issue where Wither effect damage would be reduced by armor

Realms

  • Shortened text when uploading worlds and add-ons so it fits in the dialog
  • Fixed a problem where custom add-on packs could not be applied properly in Realms settings, as well as fixed a crash during pack uploading
  • Unlocalized text no longer appears when connecting to a Realm with an outdated client

User interface

  • Removed the “Clear Account Sign in Data” button from the Settings menu from non-Switch platforms, as it is only intended to function on Nintendo Switch
  • Fixed a bug where usernames could be above max size
  • To make finding the right thing in Settings easier, the Profile screen has been split into two new sections: General and Account
  • Ensured proper text-to-speech support for the revamped death screen
  • Fixed a bug where achievements would be disabled for some world templates
  • Fixed a bug in Pocket UI where items could be dropped in the dark-grey areas around the item grid in the Crafting Table screen
  • Fixed a bug in Pocket UI where items could be dropped in the dark-grey areas around the item grid in the inventories for the Horse, Mule, Donkey, and Llama
  • Fixed a bug where the death screen message was visible when the Show Death Message game rule was set to false
  • Fixed an issue where players couldn't drag / drop or select items from the equipment page
  • Changed the color of the text descriptions for the 'Darkness Effect Strength' and 'Notification Duration' accessibility options to a lighter shade to make them more readable
  • Fixed a bug where death messages were sometimes too long to fit on screen
  • Fixed the crafting screen search string not saving correctly
  • Fixed an issue with the durability bar missing on inventory screens on Xbox
  • Fixed a bug where the sign in button on Create New World didn't work on some platforms
  • The copy coordinates gamepad tooltip now uses the correct icon depending on the platform

Vanilla parity

General

  • Getting killed by a renamed weapon now produces a death message with the item name
  • Getting killed by a mob with a renamed weapon now produces a death message with the item name
  • The Roofed Forest, Savanna Mutated, and Birch Forest biomes use the correct grass colors
  • Mobs no longer spawn within the bounds of an Ancient City
  • Sweet Berries can now be planted on Farmland
  • Changed bubble column strength to match Java Edition
  • Scaffolds now burn at a more correct rate, 1/4 of an item
  • Wither Skeletons can now spawn inside of Wither Roses
  • Decreased the amount of hunger used while swimming to match Java Edition

Blocks

  • Players now sink in Soul Sand and Mud blocks
  • Players swimming above Mud will not have their screen covered
  • Projectiles landing on Mud will not repeatedly shake
  • Amphibious mobs no longer have trouble pathfinding around Mud Blocks

Mobs

  • Ravagers can now be hurt by Evoker Fangs
  • Increased Ravager collision box size to match Java Edition
  • Increased Ravager speed to match Java Edition
  • Librarian Villagers can now offer Enchanted Books with Curse of Vanishing and Curse of Binding

Technical updates

General

  • Fixed a crash that could occur when using the `hasItem` selector and specifying a negative value for the item's data
  • Implemented the `has_property`, `int_property`, `bool_property`, `float_property`, and `enum_property` actor behavior filters
  • Added flag `is_hidden_in_commands` in `menu_category` to control whether or not a block can be used in commands
  • Release `BlockGeometryComponent` out of experimental in JSON formats 1.19.40 and higher
  • Release `BlockMaterialInstancesComponent` out of experimental in JSON formats 1.19.40 and higher
  • Renamed `minecraft:block_light_filter` component to `minecraft:light_dampening`
  • Renamed experiment GameTest Framework to Beta APIs
  • The now-renamed Beta APIs experiment is still needed to access all beta APIs, including core Minecraft APIs and GameTest APIs
  • Fixed a bug where `EntityHurtEvent` would not fire on player death
  • `Entity`
    • Updated `targetproperty` to be read-only
    • Fixed an issue where UI forms would not mark their cancelled field correctly
  • Converted `EntityQueryScoreOptions` to an interface
  • Converted `EntityRaycastOptions` to an interface
  • Converted `ExplosionOptions` to an interface
  • Converted `MusicOptions` to an interface
  • Converted `SoundOptions` to an interface
  • Removed built-in GameTest Behavior Packs

Actors

  • Implemented new `is_baby` actor filter that returns `true` when the subject entity is a baby
  • Fixed `bool_property` filters that didn't specify a `value`

AI goals

  • Fixed an issue with Iron Golems that prevented mobs with the `minecraft:take_flower` AI behavior to use the goal
  • Exposed new data parameters for the `minecraft:play` AI behavior to specify such things as the duration the goal stays active, the chance to start the goal, the range to search for a friend, and the follow distance to stay within when playing with a friend

APIs

  • `Events`
    • Removed event `tick` — called each tick
  • `System`
    • Added `system.run()` — to queue a callback to run next tick, re-queue each tick to get behavior similar to tick event
  • `Block`
    • Renamed property `id` to `typeId`
  • `BlockComponent`
    • Renamed property `id` to `typeId`
  • `Entity`
    • Renamed property `id` to `typeId`
    • Added read-only property `id: string` — Returns a unique identifier for the entity. This identifier remains consistent across world loads
  • `EntityComponent`
    • Renamed property `id` to `typeId`
  • `ItemComponent`
    • Renamed property `id` to `typeId`
  • `ItemStack`
    • Renamed property `id` to `typeId`

Commands

  • Implemented the `/execute facing` and `/execute facing entity` commands
  • Implemented the `/execute align` command
  • Fixed a problem with teleports appearing to fly the target to the new location instead of being instant
  • Added the `replace block` overload to the `/loot` command
  • Implemented the `/execute rotated` and `/execute rotated as` commands
  • Added the ability to set a custom block with a specific custom block property using the `/setblock` command
  • Copying a bubble column with the `/clone` command no longer results in invisible water
  • Added new overload to the `/summon` command that adds rotation arguments
    • New overload is `/summon [ spawnPos : x y z] [yRot: float] [xRot: float] [spawnEvent: string] [nametag: string]`
    • Previous overload is `/summon [ spawnPos : x y z] [spawnEvent: string] [nametag: string]`
  • Temporarily disabled the rotation for the `/summon` command while a bug is worked on
  • Fixed a rotation issue when a Command Block executes `execute facing` and `execute rotated`
  • Implemented the `/execute in` command
  • Implemented the `/execute anchored <eyes|feet>` command

Custom block geometry

  • We have released custom block geometry in this version of Minecraft
    • This means that anyone can make a custom block with their own custom geometry and textures without turning on the Holiday Creator Features experimental toggle in settings

Data-driven blocks

  • `minecraft:direction` is no longer exposed as a data-driven `blockProperty`. Blocks throw a content error when the "minecraft" namespace is used

Data-driven items

  • Added support for recipes to use item tags directly instead of item names
  • Added new item tags
  • Converted several recipes from code into their own recipe files
  • Added several recipes using the new tags to override many old, item specific recipes (these still exist for backwards compatibility):
    • `barrel`, `beehive`, `bookshelf`, `bowl`, `brewing_stand`, `campfire`, `cartography_table`, `chest`, `composter`, `crafting_table`, `daylight_detector`, `fire_charge`, `fletching_table`, `furnace`, `grindstone`, `jukebox`, `lectern`, `loom`, `noteblock`, `painting`, `piston`, `shield`, `smithing_table`, `smoker`, `soul_campfire`, `soul_torch`, `stick`, `stone_axe`, `stone_hoe`, `stone_pickaxe`, `stone_shovel`, `stone_sword`, `torch`, `tripwire_hook`, `wooden_axe`, `wooden_hoe`, `wooden_pickaxe`, `wooden_shovel`, `wooden_sword`
  • Custom Items, tags, and block tags now work correctly with the `minecraft:digger` component

Entity documentation

  • Removed experimental markers for The Wild Update entity behaviors and components
  • Added documentation for `minecraft:heartbeat`
  • Fixed and updated documentation for entity events

Updated add-on template packs

  • Updated Add-On templates for 1.19.40 with new resources, behaviors, and documentation, are available to download

Experimental features

GameTest Framework

  • There has been a major breaking change to experimental JavaScript APIs:
  • All script modules have been renamed to follow a new convention
    • `mojang-gametest` to `@minecraft/server-gametest`
    • `mojang-minecraft` to `@minecraft/server`
    • `mojang-minecraft-ui` to `@minecraft/server-ui`
    • `mojang-minecraft-server-admin` to `@minecraft/server-admin`
    • `mojang-net` to `@minecraft/server-net`
  • For example, rather than using:
    • `import * as mc` from `mojang-minecraft`
  • Use:
    • `import * as mc` from `@minecraft/server`
  • Use of `script eval()` and `Function()` must be explicitly enabled in `manifest.json`
  • To do this, set `script_eval` in `capabilities` array:
    • `capabilities: [script_eval`]`
  • Root path for imports has changed; `scripts/` prefix are no longer allowed
    • For imports, use import `./source.js` or import `source.js`
    • Deprecated use of import `scripts/source.js`

Spectator Mode

  • Spectators no longer drop XP orbs when killed
  • Spectators no longer reset their player level when killed
  • Water fog is no longer removed for players in Spectator Mode
  • Spectator players no longer play sounds when entering / exiting bubble columns
  • Shulker bullets no longer follow Spectators
  • Spectators are now invisible to normal players
  • If a player is in Spectator Mode and other non-spectating players are present on the server, the spectating player won't affect mob despawning anymore
  • If there are only spectating players on the server, mob despawning is now put on hold
Minecraft: Bedrock Edition

Minecraft: Bedrock Edition

The 1.19.40 patch update for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition is here, and it brings with it a plethora of fixes and improvements for all players to enjoy.

Buy from: Amazon | Xbox

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

Minecraft: Java Edition and Minecraft: Bedrock Edition are available through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, making Microsoft's subscription service the best place to gain access to everything Minecraft.

Buy from: Amazon | Xbox

Zachary Boddy
Staff Writer

Zachary Boddy (They / Them) is a Staff Writer for Windows Central, primarily focused on covering the latest news in tech and gaming, the best Xbox and PC games, and the most interesting Windows and Xbox hardware. They have been gaming and writing for most of their life starting with the original Xbox, and started out as a freelancer for Windows Central and its sister sites in 2019. Now a full-fledged Staff Writer, Zachary has expanded from only writing about all things Minecraft to covering practically everything on which Windows Central is an expert, especially when it comes to Microsoft. You can find Zachary on Twitter @BoddyZachary.