Why is my Minecraft not letting me join my friends?

So, you started a Minecraft server to play with your friends, but none of your friends can join.

Ugh! I know how frustrating it can be. Everybody wants to build castles, prank their friends, and set their own set of rules on their server.

Well, put on your reading glasses because as your fellow Minecrafter and someone who spent hours in the game to solve this particular problem, I will be giving you the exact solution to this problem.

Please don’t skip any part as I am going to explain the process step by step.

Also, this error is related to io netty abstract connection error in Minecraft. Check out our separate post to fix io.netty.channel.abstractchannel$annotatedconnectexception.

How To Fix The Unable To Connect To World Glitch! | Minecraft PE (Win10/Xbox/PS4/Switch)

Fix 3: Disable Windows Firewall

If Minecraft is not allowed in the Firewall, the “Unable to connect to world” issue can happen. You can connect to the internet but can’t join each other’s world. So check the Firewall settings and ensure the Minecraft executable file “javaw.exe” is allowed in the Firewall.

Click the Windows start button, type control panel and press the Enter key on your keyboard to open Control Panel.

Set Control Panel view by Large icons then click Windows Defender Firewall.

Click Allow an app or feature through Windows Defender Firewall.

Make sure the “javaw.exe” is checked. If not, click the Change settings button then check the “javaw.exe”. If you see more than one “javaw.exe” entries, check all of them. Ensure the Private box and the Publick box are checked too.

If the Minecraft.exe is checked, this fix doesn’t work for you. Move on to the next fix.

Fix 4: Update the network drivers

Outdated network drivers may cause the “Unable to connect to world” issue. So you can try to update the network driver to fix the problem.

If you don’t have the time, patience or computer skills to update the driver manually, you can do it automatically with Driver Easy.

Driver Easy will automatically recognize your system and find the correct drivers for it. You don’t need to know exactly what system your computer is running, you don’t need to risk downloading and installing the wrong driver, and you don’t need to worry about making a mistake when installing.

You can update your drivers automatically with either the FREE or the Pro version of Driver Easy. But with the Pro version it takes just 2 clicks (and you get full support and a 30-day money back guarantee):

Download and install Driver Easy.

Run Driver Easy and click Scan Now button. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.

Click the Update button next to the driver to automatically download and install the correct version of this driver (you can do this with Free version). Or click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of all the drivers that are missing or out of date on your system (this requires the Pro version – you’ll be prompted to upgrade when you click Update All).

Run Minecraft and check whether you can connect to the world.

If this fix can’t help, you can move to the next.

Fix 1: Re-add your friend

I believe you’ve already tried restarting Minecraft maybe even restart your computer. There is one more thing you can try: re-add your friend.

If you find you can still connect to a stranger’s world, you can remove the person as a friend then re-add him/her back. This fix has helped some players.