Java Edition removed features

Since the beginning of the development of Minecraft: Java Edition, there have been a number of features that were removed from the game. These features may have been replaced, or a developer decided against the feature later on.

Note that this page only documents game features that were removed; features of a particular game element that were removed are noted in that element's history. See Java Edition unused features for features that are still currently in the game.

Horse saddle


Horse Saddles were items that were added in snapshot 13w16a during the development of 1.6.1, along with horses. Horse Saddles worked just like regular saddles, but for horses instead of pigs. Taming a horse was required before putting a horse saddle on it. The horse saddle was craftable using the following recipe:

The item ID used was 416, which refers to the armor stand in current versions.

32 horse saddles could be stacked in one slot.

In 13w16a existed error: at death Horse dropped normal saddle and horse saddle items were later removed from the game in 13w18a, and normal saddles are now used for both pigs and horses.

Furniture


In Indev's terrain.png were two textures which might be interpreted as a chair (side and front). The actual purpose of those textures is unknown. The second texture may be the side view of a table, or possibly the front of the chair. On Notch's blog, The Word of Notch, furniture, and more specifically chairs, are mentioned a few times.

Studded armor


Studded armor were several sprites that were added sometime around Indev 0.31 in items.png. They were taken from Notch's unfinished game, Legend of the Chambered, along with other armor sprites. The armor was implemented into gameplay in early 0.31 and was eventually removed.

Quiver


In Legend of the Chambered (an abandoned RPG that Notch made), there was a quiver item available to be picked up as loot. Notch reused the sprite from that game and put it in Minecraft, albeit flipped horizontally. It was added in early 0.31 and eventually removed.

Although the sprite for the quiver has been in the game files since Indev, almost nothing is known about it. Jeb originally stated that there were no plans to add them. Later, during 1.9 development, Dinnerbone tweeted a 2×204960 image which can be reformed into a 854×480 Minecraft screenshot, containing the quiver. On June 30, 2015, Dinnerbone posted that he removed them again as arrows in the off-hand feel "more natural".

In 1.9, the quiver texture was removed.

Skis


A texture known in the game files as "skis.png" was added in 1.4.6 by Dinnerbone as a red herring. It was intended as a joke and only the texture ever existed; it never had an id, item, code in the game, and as confirmed by Dinnerbone, it could not be summoned. The texture was removed in 1.5.

Crying obsidian


Crying obsidian was a texture in Minecraft for an abandoned project to implement a spawn-point changing obelisk. It was abandoned after the introduction of beds. It would have been crafted with an obsidian block and lapis lazuli. The version in which the texture was added is not known.

The texture for crying obsidian was removed in Beta 1.5.

On February 9, 2012, Jeb was asked "Can you bring back Crying Obsidian or add some new color/texture blocks?" to which he responded "As soon as I've made preparations for more texture space."

Infinite water source


The infinite water source was a block that would create infinite water, which would replicate infinitely to fill up volumes. Mojang removed this because of problems and glitches when they were placed next to each other. They were added originally in Indev 0.31 (January 24, 2010) to allow for infinite lakes on floating maps.

It was available as block ID 52, prior to being replaced with the monster spawner in Infdev (June 25, 2010, 2). (Plus, it acted like Water in Classic.)

Infinite lava source


Similar to the infinite water source, the infinite lava source was a block that created infinite lava which would replicate infinitely to fill up volumes. It was also added in Indev 0.31 (January 24, 2010).

It was available as block ID 53, prior to being replaced with oak stairs in Infdev (June 29, 2010).



Locked chest
Locked chests were an April Fools block added in Beta 1.4. They would spawn rarely and emit a light level of 15. Pressing on the chest would bring up a screen, and clicking on the "Go to Store" button would forward you to the "Minecraft Store". They were subsequently removed from normal gameplay in Beta 1.4_01, but it remained within the game's code until it was removed entirely in 1.7.2.

It was available as block ID 95, prior to being replaced with stained glass in 13w41a.

Powered comparator
During the development for 1.5, the comparator at first used two separate block IDs to represent its powered and unpowered states, with names  and , and numeric IDs 149 and 150 respectively. As of 13w05a, the  block was removed from use in the game, replaced by a powered block state on the   block. It is removed completely in the 1.13 snapshot 17w47a, as of The Flattening.

Reverted potions
Before the 1.9 snapshot 15w31a, potions had a form known as "reverted". In the inventory, reverted potions looked identical to their base potion, much like mundane and mundane (extended), and their usage was also identical to their base potions, with the exception of turning into reverted potions rather than base potions. The only difference was data values.

There were two general methods to create reverted potions, one of which involved the addition of fermented spider eyes. Reversion, in general, referenced changing a longer, upgraded potion into its original weaker potion (for example, changing from a potion of poison (extended) into a potion of harming (reverted) by adding fermented spider eye).
 * The first method involved adding glowstone (typically) to an already upgraded tertiary potion. Since these tertiary potions have already been modified with redstone (typically), they could be changed to their original (revert) unmodified states depending on which modifier was added previously. Not all potions could be reverted (or react, for that matter) when glowstone powder or redstone dust was added to an upgraded tertiary potion (for example, adding redstone to an already redstone-extended potion did not yield a new potion).
 * The second method involved the addition of fermented spider eyes, followed by glowstone (usually). Method two worked by adding fermented spider eye to an extended positive potion (i.e. an extended tertiary potion). In almost all cases, this would corrupt the potion and produce a negative potion of equal strength (in this case, extended). Then, glowstone (depending on the recipe) was added to the extended negative potion. Since these negative tertiary potions (regardless of origin) have already been modified with redstone, the addition of glowstone would revert the potion to a potion of lesser duration.

A good example of this process at work is the reversion of the potion of weakness. A potion of weakness can be made two ways. The first method is by adding fermented spider eye to a mundane potion (water bottle + ghast tear/glistering melon/blaze powder/magma cream/sugar/spider eye), then adding redstone to produce potion of weakness (extended). The second method is by adding (again) fermented spider eye to either a potion of strength or a potion of regeneration. Potions of strength and regeneration, in their base or extended forms, will produce potions of weakness with equal magnitude (for the sake of this example, fermented spider eye is added to potion of strength (extended) to produce potion of weakness (extended)).

Now, there should be two Potions of Weakness (4:00). Glowstone dust could be added to the Potion of Weakness (Ext) which reverted the potion into a normal duration (1:30) Potion of Weakness. The act of reducing the duration from 4:00 to 1:30 was reversion.

Plate.png
In numerous versions such as 0.30, there was a folder called "armor", which contained two files in development, showing only a helmet and chestplate. One was finished and called "chain.png" and resembled chain armor, and the other was unfinished and called "plate.png". Plate.png was used in Survival Test for mobs, and eventually removed in an unknown version. These were presumably added in Classic 0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST, however when they were truly added is unknown.

Cat spawn egg
The cat spawn egg spawned a tamed ocelot, which is what cats were at the time. It was added in 1.10 snapshot 16w20a, then removed in snapshot 1.10-pre2 along with many other spawn eggs. Unlike the others, it was not re-added in 1.11 snapshot 16w32a, presumably because cats were obtainable by spawning an ocelot and taming it.

In the Village & Pillage Update, cats became a completely separate mob from ocelots, and a cat spawn egg was added that spawns it directly. It uses the same name and texture as the original cat spawn egg. Whether this represents a brand new egg or a re-add of the old egg with a new mob is an open question with no real consequence either way.

Rose


The rose was removed from the Java edition in 1.7.2 snapshot 13w36a, from the Pocket Edition in Alpha 0.9.0 and from the Legacy Console Edition partially in and fully in. In all three editions, the rose was simply replaced by the poppy as a wild flower which had the same function: crafting red dye, though in the Legacy Console Edition it was still named 'rose', until in its versions known as.

Blocks previously obtainable as items
for a full list of unobtainable blocks

The game prevents certain blocks from being obtained through normal gameplay methods, such as crafting, the creative inventory, the pick block key, and the silk touch enchantment. It also prevents such blocks from being given through less conventional methods, such as inventory editing, mods, and commands. Until release versions 1.7.2 and 1.8, there had been a wide variety of blocks that could be edited into the inventory; over time, however, the game was developed so that these blocks became entirely unavailable, even through editing.

Currently, the game only accepts name IDs (such as ) in most commands, and uses only name IDs when assigning blocks to the inventory and save files. The old method of obtaining a block via numerical IDs is no longer an option. In addition, the game automatically removes blocks with illegitimate name IDs from the inventory, so using inventory editors is also no longer an option. Furthermore, certain blocks such as  cannot be obtained in their block form; however, since the game has a corresponding item named , the item form is given instead.

Obtainable until 1.7.2
In snapshot 13w37a, the command was modified so that it would notify the name of the item in chat. Due to this, 26 blocks were made unavailable:

Air block
The air block was briefly available as an item during 1.7.2 snapshot 13w38b, while Grum had been redefining the code that represented air in-game. This availability only lasted for one snapshot, as it was the focus of several bugs, most notably a bug that made mobs drop air upon death.

Obtainable until 1.8
In snapshot 14w25a, changes were made to the way the icons of items were rendered, and the way block data was internally represented. Due to this, 12 blocks were made unavailable:

Obtainable until 1.9
In snapshot 15w49a, 1 block was made unavailable:

Paeonia


Paeonias were unimplemented flowers that were replaced by the two-block-tall peonies.

There was only one screenshot of the block released by Jeb. Its texture file was still in the /texture/block folder and was named flower_paeonia.png, but it was later removed in the 17w47a snapshot for 1.13.

Unused potions
There were 29 potions without effects that were left behind in. All unused potions had no effect and appeared to be re-textures of other potions. These potions were later removed in the 1.9 snapshot 15w44b.

These potions could only be obtained by using the command {{cmd|give @p minecraft:potion 1 They only had one trade: 8-9 gold ingots for 1 emerald. In 14w02a, due to changes in the trading system, attempting to trade with generic villagers will crash the game. In 14w03a, generic villagers were removed from the game, as villagers with negative profession IDs become farmers.

In 16w32b Re-added Generic Villagers, who are now called Nitwits, as Profession 5. However they can no longer trade, because right clicking on a Generic Villager does nothing.

{{-}}

Fluff.png
In Infdev, a texture called "Fluff.png" was added. It was used as a texture for clouds in Infdev, but was later removed in early alpha.

waterterrain.png
In Infdev, a file similar to terrain, referred to as "waterterrain.png" could be found, it is unknown when this file had been added, and unknown when it was removed. It appeared to be some sort of arrow system, and it is possible this was used to test water animation.

Door Details
In the Infdev terrain file there could be found two door textures that looked exactly the same except the hinges and the handle were on the opposite sides, but in today's Minecraft only one of the texture is used, and is flipped, when the handles and hinges are on the other sides. The alternate door was overwritten with the iron door texture in Alpha v1.0.1.

Door Entity
In the Infdev "item" folder (where signs, arrows, and minecarts could be found at the time), a file named "door.png" could also be found. It was most likely going to be used for the door animation Notch had been wanting to add.

Brick Block Variations
At some point in Classic, there were 4 similar brick textures added with slight differences, hinting it might have been planned to add variations in textures.

Steve Villager Hybrid
After villagers were added, a strange file could be found in the mobs folder (outside of the villager folder) called "villager.png". It appeared to be some sort of Steve villager hybrid. This file was removed in 1.5 during the texture pack reform.

Steve's hair on 2nd layer of char.png
Char.png can be found on 0.27 SURVIVAL TEST's texture files and Steve's hair is on the 2nd layer rather than the 1st. It is unknown why this switch occurred. This was possibly a failed hair test.

Another failed skin attempt on char.png
Char_2.png can be found on Indev (February 12, 2010, 1)'s texture files. This was possibly another failed attempt of testing skins in Indev, there are two gold pixels on the top right of Steve's head for unknown reasons and another layer of hair.

"chunkinfo" command
From 1.8 (14w30a) to 1.13 (17w45a), the file  contained translation strings for a   command, which never existed in game. The following keys existed:

commands.chunkinfo.usage=/chunkinfo [  ] commands.chunkinfo.location=Chunk location: (%s, %s, %s) commands.chunkinfo.noChunk=No chunk found at chunk position %s, %s, %s commands.chunkinfo.notEmpty=Chunk is not empty. commands.chunkinfo.empty=Chunk is empty. commands.chunkinfo.notCompiled=Chunk is not compiled. commands.chunkinfo.compiled=Chunk is compiled. commands.chunkinfo.hasNoRenderableLayers=Chunk has no renderable layers. commands.chunkinfo.hasLayers=Chunk has layers: %s commands.chunkinfo.isEmpty=Chunk has empty layers: %s commands.chunkinfo.vertices=%s layer's buffer contains %s vertices commands.chunkinfo.data=First 64 vertices are: %s

It is unknown if this command was used by Mojang for development or was simply a dropped feature.

Footstep particle
The footstep particle was introduced, but never used in the game. It was removed in snapshot 17w47a, as part of the The Flattening.

Gear


On January 25, 2010, Notch posted a video of the gears being placed onto the wall of a cliff.

In Indev on January 26, 2010, the code for gears was added. It could only be obtained by inventory editing and was initially invisible in the inventory, at some point this was changed to the animated version as seen when placed in the world. When edited into the game, gears could be placed anywhere, but would only display on a side of any solid block. Placing them in a space where more than one side are next to each other would cause a gear to appear on all of the sides. Placed gears were almost impossible to destroy; any mining directed at a gear phased through to the block behind it, much like water. If the block a gear was on was destroyed, the gear was not removed, but oddly, was invisible. The gear still existed in the map and would show up again if a solid block was replaced. Gears could therefore only be removed using a liquid to flow on them. A gear's sprite consisted of two parts; the center rod and the animated gear.

In early Alpha, gears were removed. They had a data value of 55, which was replaced by redstone in Alpha v1.0.1.

Play Tutorial Level button
An unclickable Play Tutorial Level button was added during Indev. It could be found on the main screen. However, there was no tutorial level in the games code. It was finally removed during the transition from Alpha to Beta stage.

calm4.ogg


calm4.ogg was a music file (alongside the other tracks) that was beta-tested and created by Notch himself. The song is 3:13.

It consists of an up-beat synth, battle-like tune. At 1:36 in the song, you can hear Notch saying "Mojang Specifications" in slow-motion.

The track was released around. As such, players who had the game while the song was still in it will continue to hear it being played, as the game will play any song in the  folder. In Alpha v1.1.2 this track was omitted from the downloaded game files.

With the introduction of the 1.6.1 launcher, playing older versions with the track Calm4.ogg will not allow the track to be heard, since music is downloaded separately from the .jar files.

Player stats
In an early Indev version, the player could open the inventory screen and view their name and three stats: "ATK", "DEF," and "SPD". These only existed for a very brief period of time - when asked, Notch stated he could not remember exactly why they were implemented and subsequently removed, and he assumed they were placeholders for "vague plans".

On-screen version number
Starting with Classic 0.0.9a, all subsequent versions until RC2 had text displayed in the top left corner of the screen which told what version the player was on. Versions between Beta 1.6.4 and Beta 1.7.3 did not have this text. From 0.0.9a to the last Indev 0.31 release (Indev 0.31 (February 5, 2010)), only the version number was displayed. But after Indev switched from being 0.31 to being called Minecraft Indev (Indev (February 6, 2010)), the word "Minecraft" was shown before the version number. In the Alpha development stage, the text read Minecraft Alpha v#.#.#(_#). In the Beta development stage, the text read Minecraft Beta #.#(_#). This feature was only partially removed, for, among other things, the version number can now be shown by pressing the opening the debug screen while in-game. Before Beta 1.0 the version number did not display on the main menu screen.

Unlicensed copy message
In the Beta stage of Minecraft's development, a message reading "Minecraft Beta #.#.#(_0#) Unlicensed Copy :( (Or logged in from another location). Purchase at minecraft.net," was shown. This message can only be seen in versions between Beta 1.6 Test Build 3 and Beta 1.7.3, as proved by a bytecode editor. The bytecode for the message was removed in Beta 1.8.

Loading screen
From Infdev (June 29, 2010) to Alpha v1.0.3, a screen that read "Loading..." could be seen in the bottom left corner when launching the game. This was replaced in Alpha v1.0.4 with the Mojang logo.

Achievements
Achievements were available between Beta 1.5 and 1.12 (17w06a). They were ultimately replaced by advancements, though editions other than the Java Edition still have achievements instead.

Texture pack
Texture packs were added in Alpha v1.2.2, and were replaced with Resource packs in 1.6.1 (13w24a).

3D Anaglyph
3D Anaglyph is an option in video settings that applies an red-cyan stereoscopic effect, and when wearing 3D glasses, can actually see different parts of the game in varying depths, making the world "pop out". In the 1.13 snapshot 17w43a, 3D Anaglyph was removed for unknown reasons.

Void fog


In Beta 1.8, black void fog and the  particle were introduced. As the player descended below y=17 in The Overworld, the void fog and particles would start to appear. As the player traveled deeper, the fog at the edge of the render distance would become closer until the player reached bedrock, where visibility was reduced to just a few blocks, beyond which was complete darkness. The gray void particles appeared at and under layer 16, as well as in the void.

The void fog was removed in snapshot 14w34c, the main reason being to improve perfomance. The  particle was also removed from the void, but stayed in the game until snapshot 17w47a when it was removed as part of The Flattening.

Minecart changes
In snapshot 14w11a during the development of 1.8, the physics of minecarts were changed. Their collision and position handling was improved, and they could go faster and farther, derail at corners if going too fast and refuse to go uphill. However, these changes were reverted in 14w17a after the developers decided that the behavior was too buggy.

Dispensing command blocks
From 1.8 snapshot 14w07a, dispensers had the ability to place a command block that it contained, when activated. This feature was removed as of version 1.8.6 to solve a security issue.

Mobs running from creepers
In 1.8, mobs ran away from creepers that were about to explode. In 1.8.1-pre1, this feature was removed because every mob that had the ability to run from a creeper was looking for an exploding creeper every tick, degrading performance.

Super Secret Settings
The "Super Secret Settings", added in 1.7.2 snapshot 13w38a, were removed in 1.9 snapshot 15w31a for an internal rewrite. It was a button under the options menu that, when pressed, would blare a random game sound with a lower pitch, and activate a shader.

Native Twitch.tv integration
Native Twitch.tv integration, added in 1.7.4 snapshot 13w47a, was removed in 1.9 snapshot 15w31a. Twitch chat was integrated into the game.

entity.hanging.place and entity.hanging.pop
and were two sound effects added in 15w49a and removed in the next snapshot, 15w49b.

Old conduit particle
The Conduit was added in the 18w15a snapshot with particles, but those particles were changed in the next snapshot 18w16a.

Tags
The  and   was added in 1.13 snapshots 18w07a and 18w07b respectively and removed in 18w10c. Before the removal, these tags functions follows: