This guide is for mac computers. If you’re on Windows, use this guide
A few different Minecraft issues can be caused by your computers hosts file:
- “Authentication servers are down for maintenance” when signing in with a Microsoft account.
- “Switch to Mojang mode” when trying to join servers from a Microsoft account.
- Unable to login to minecraft.net or the launcher, on one device, but can on others.
- Problems purchasing Minecraft.
To fix these issues, follow the steps below to check and clean your hosts file:
- Open a finder window.
- Select Applications
- Double click Utilities
- Double click Terminal
- In the Terminal window: type sudo nano /etc/hosts and then press return.
- Type your administrator password and then press return.
- You should see a window similar to this:

- Remove any lines that contain Mojang
- Hold Control + O to save the file.
- Hold Control + X to exit window.
- Head to minecraft.net and change your password.
You can now restart the launcher and login to your account as normal.
Still need some help?
If you still need help, make a post on r/MinecraftHelp and one of us will guide you through the steps.
[…] This guide is for Windows PC’s. If you’re on Mac, use this guide. […]