Forum: gaming.stackexchange.com
Tags: <minecraft-java-edition>
Title: Can I alt-tab out of Minecraft without the game auto-pausing?
Question: Is there a way to alt-tab out of Minecraft (i.e. make Minecraft lose focus) without the game auto-pausing and without having to bring a menu (e.g. inventory) up first?

Answers:
sents: text: Go into your minecraft folder and open up options.txt .
text: Find the line that reads pauseOnLostFocus:true and change true to false .
text: Now Minecraft won't pause to the menu screen when you tab away.
text: You can find your minecraft folder in a couple ways: Using the file system:
text: Navigate to... %
text: appdata%\.minecraft\ (on Windows)
text: ~/Library
text: /Application Support/minecraft/ (on Mac OS X)
text: ~/.minecraft/ (on Linux) Using Minecraft's menus: Start Minecraft and click Options , Resource Packs , and then Open resource packs folder .
text: In the file system window that opens, go up one folder and you'll be in your minecraft folder.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/54182/user54182
score: 75
sents: text: You can press F3 + P to let the game not auto-pausing.
text: Press F3 + P again to re-enable it.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/80773/infmagic2047
score: 53
sents: text: For single player, it seems that you've already figured out that bringing up the inventory screen prevents the game from auto-pausing when it loses focus.
text: I don't believe there is any other way to prevent the auto pausing.
text: You may, however, consider hosting a SMP server and being the only person connected to it.
text: In SMP, the game will not pause when you are alt-tabbed out.
text: You can install mods on a SMP server that allow you to create user whitelists to define who you want to connect to your server.
text: If you add only yourself to that list, you don't need to worry about anyone else connecting while you are playing.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/4775/Dave McClelland
score: 34
sents: text: Since the update that merged the single- and multi-player code bases, you can press T to start typing in chat, which will let you tab out without pausing or hiding the game .
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/24394/Tharwen
score: 13
sents: text: This answer is no longer relevant to current Minecraft versions, because F1 no longer hides menus; also, F1 is now a toggle and the tricks for holding it down are irrelevant.
text: Since you mention that your concern is that you can't see (as opposed to having the menu up at all), I have a fix for that:
text: with the menu up, use F1 to hide it.
text: Pressing F1 removes all HUD elements and leaves only the game view.
text: However, you have to hold down F1 .
text: There are several tricks for this to fool the game into thinking you have F1 down: Press F1 and switch out of Minecraft while holding it down.
text: (Tested on Mac) Before releasing F1 , press the Alt (Windows (and Linux?)) or ⌘ Command (Mac) keys.
text: Mac-specific: If you have a system where you have to press fn - F1 , just release F1 before fn .
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/5962/Kevin Reid
score: 3
sents: text: Whilst all the other solutions look perfectly fine, I thought I'd add the method I use, when I want to not have the game pause, I hit esc, and "Open up to LAN".
text: The game doesn;t pause then on focus loss.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/61520/TMH
score: 1
sents: text: here's how I did it, I was mining, in a map called Minevolution, I was in full screen mode and then, while holding down left click, I pressed F11 at the same time I let go of the left click button, and it continued to mine, then I just did the whole Alt+Tab thing to get out of it
text: and it worked
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/93595/Reo Reyes
score: 0
sents: text: If you just open a LAN connection the game no longer can be paused, even if you're in the game menu.
text: A LAN connection only allows people to jump in if they are on the same internet connection, so it is pretty secure.
answer_details: author: gaming.stackexchange.com/users/100610/user100610
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
Try F3+P to remove auto-pause. You can also open a LAN connection.
There are multiple ways you can do this, chief among them being editing the options.txt in the minecraft folder. There is also a key combination that works (F3 +P), or keeping the chat box open. Opening a LAN connection also works.