PojavLauncher Is Discontinued: What Replaced It, and How to Move Your Worlds

Short answer: PojavLauncher is no longer developed. Since 23 September 2025 its GitHub page says: “PojavLauncher has been discontinued and is no longer supported. Its successor is available here”, linking to Amethyst. Its last version is from January 2025 and can’t run Minecraft 26.1 or later. Install Amethyst, Zalith Launcher 2 or Fold Craft Launcher instead, and copy your worlds over before you uninstall PojavLauncher.

All of them run Minecraft: Java Edition, which you have to own on a Microsoft account; none includes the game. Our guide to playing Minecraft Java on Android covers the first launch.

What happened

• January 2025: the last release, called gladiolus. Days later PojavLauncher disappeared from Google Play, and a maintainer wrote: “For the foreseeable future, PojavLauncher will not be available for download on Google Play.” The maintainer later explained that Google deleted the app over identity verification, which Google doesn’t allow for developers under 18.
• April 2025: the last code changes. Some of them, such as a demo mode, were never released.
• May 2025: Amethyst started as a copy (fork) of PojavLauncher’s code, by the AngelAuraMC team, whose lead was one of PojavLauncher’s developers.
• 23 September 2025: PojavLauncher’s repository was marked discontinued and archived, so it is read-only. Its Discord server is now called “PojavLauncher [Public Archive]”, and its website forwards to AngelAuraMC’s.

The project gave no reason for stopping. Amethyst’s team writes that its projects “never enable the ability to pirate Microsoft or Mojang software”, and Amethyst only allows offline accounts after you sign in with a Microsoft account that owns the game.

Why the last version is a dead end

• New Minecraft needs Java 25. Mojang’s version files require Java 25 from 26.1, released in March 2026, onwards. PojavLauncher’s last version carries Java 8, 17 and 21, and refuses with “Can’t find any compatible Java Runtime”.
• It also needs a newer LWJGL, the library Minecraft uses for graphics and input: 26.x lists LWJGL 3.4, and PojavLauncher substitutes its own 3.3.3. Amethyst needed several updates during 2026 to get 26.1 to 26.3 running, so adding Java 25 by hand most likely isn’t enough.
• No NeoForge installer, and no fixes of any kind since January 2025.
• No Google Play version, and no updates from anywhere.

We don’t host that last APK. It is a debug build, installed under a different package name (net.kdt.pojavlaunch.debug) and signed with Android’s debug certificate, whose key is published in the project’s own repository, so anyone could sign an app that installs as an update over it. One of its graphics libraries also carried an “All rights reserved” notice when it was built; it only became open source two months later.

The three replacements

	Amethyst	Zalith Launcher 2	Fold Craft Launcher
Relation to PojavLauncher	Its direct continuation, from the same team	Uses PojavLauncher’s launch engine	Based on HMCL, using Amethyst’s engine
Android	5.0 and later	8.0 and later	8.0 and later
Latest release (as of 11 October 2026)	July 2026	October 2026	October 2026
Java	Java 8 built in; 17, 21 and 25 downloaded in the app	8, 17, 21 and 25 built in	8, 17, 21 and 25 built in
Mod loaders	Forge, NeoForge, Fabric, Quilt, OptiFine	Forge, NeoForge, Fabric, Legacy Fabric, Quilt, OptiFine, Cleanroom	Forge, NeoForge, LiteLoader, OptiFine, Fabric, Quilt, Cleanroom
Imports PojavLauncher control layouts	Yes, same format	No	No

Which one? On an older phone, Android 5 to 7, Amethyst is the only option. If you want the controls you built in PojavLauncher, Amethyst reads them as they are. Zalith Launcher 2 has the newest interface; Fold Craft Launcher has the most mod loaders and a shared folder that file managers reach easily. Our launcher comparison goes into more detail.

Moving your worlds and controls

1. Find PojavLauncher’s folder

From PojavLauncher’s source code:

• Android 10 and later: Android/data/net.kdt.pojavlaunch/files/, or Android/data/net.kdt.pojavlaunch.debug/files/ for the last GitHub version. If you had both, they are two separate folders.
• Android 9 and earlier: games/PojavLauncher/ in your phone’s storage.

Inside are .minecraft/ with the game, controlmap/ with your control layouts, and custom_instances/ for modpacks installed from the launcher.

On Android 11 and later, file managers can’t open another app’s Android/data folder directly. PojavLauncher makes its folder available to file managers that use Android’s document picker: Amethyst’s wiki suggests Files by Marc apps & software, where the folder appears in the side menu under the launcher’s name.

2. Copy what you want to keep, before uninstalling

Android removes an app’s own folder when you uninstall it, so copy first. From .minecraft/ (or from the modpack’s folder inside custom_instances/), the parts worth keeping are, as in any Minecraft installation:

• saves/: your worlds.
• resourcepacks/, shaderpacks/, screenshots/ and options.txt.
• mods/ and config/, only if you’ll use the same Minecraft version and mod loader.

Game versions, libraries and assets are downloaded again by the new launcher. Accounts can’t be carried over; sign in again.

3. Put them in the new launcher

• Amethyst uses the same folder layout as PojavLauncher, in its own folder (Android/data/org.angelauramc.amethyst/files/ on Android 10 and later), which it also makes available to file managers. Copy saves/ and the rest into its .minecraft/. For controls, open or share a PojavLauncher controlmap JSON file with Amethyst (Import controls), or copy it into Amethyst’s controlmap/ folder.
• Zalith Launcher 2 can add another game folder: copy PojavLauncher’s .minecraft to your phone’s storage and add it in the launcher. Using a folder outside its own needs the All files access permission. Single worlds can also be zipped and imported on a game version’s Saves screen. PojavLauncher’s control layouts can’t be imported; a request for that was closed as not planned.
• Fold Craft Launcher creates a shared game folder at FCL/.minecraft/ in your phone’s storage; copy your worlds into its saves/. It converts control layouts between its own format and Zalith Launcher 2’s, not PojavLauncher’s.

Then install the same Minecraft version and mod loader as before in the new launcher, and your worlds appear in the game’s world list.