Minecraft 26.4 Snapshot 4: Every Fix and Change Explained

Minecraft 26.4 Snapshot 4 is a bug-fix snapshot for Java Edition, released on October 6, 2026, with 34 fixes. The biggest changes fix frostbite and powder snow conversions, let honey blocks hold the same attachments as slime blocks, and add missing sounds like TNT ignition. The changelog lists no new blocks, items or mobs.

This is a test version, not the finished 26.4 release, so features can change before the full drop. Keep it away from worlds you care about unless you have a backup.

Snapshot 4 at a glance

Area	Fixes	What it means for you
Frostbite and powder snow	7	Conversions work properly and captions are correct
Sounds	7	TNT, dispensers, saddles and menus play the right sounds
Menus, text and controls	10	Typos, spacing and mouse button bugs fixed
Gameplay and blocks	5	World border, sculk shriekers, villagers, mushrooms, End sky
Honey blocks	3	Blocks attach to honey like they do to slime
Ice caves and world generation	2	Biome tag fix and gravel blobs are back

Snapshot 4 is the fourth snapshot for 26.4, which is the Minecraft Fourth Drop 2026. If you missed the earlier builds, the 26.4 Snapshot 3 breakdown and the Snapshot 2 breakdown cover what came before.

Frostbite and powder snow fixes

The frostbite is the new zombie variant in this drop. Zombies and husks turn into one after 30 seconds in powder snow. Several parts of that system were buggy, and this snapshot fixes them:

• Zombies and husks no longer get hurt before converting. They used to take powder snow damage while turning into frostbites. Skeletons never had this problem, and now zombies match them.
• Frostbites no longer "convert" into frostbites. A frostbite sitting in powder snow used to run the conversion on itself.
• Drowned conversion is fixed. Drowned used to die in powder snow instead of turning into frostbites. The bug report treats conversion as the intended behavior.
• Freeze-immune mobs and the Freezing effect. Mobs that can't freeze in powder snow could still pick up the Freezing effect, while frostbites couldn't. That mismatch is now fixed.

Three caption bugs got cleaned up too. A frostbite throwing an ice ball used to show the drowned trident caption. Hurting a frostbite said "hurts" instead of "is hurt". The caption for a husk turning into a zombie in powder snow was also wrong.

Honey blocks now work like slime blocks

Three separate fixes cover the same problem. Some blocks that you could place on the sides, top or bottom of a slime block wouldn't go on a honey block.

Now honey blocks accept those same blocks on every side.

Sound fixes

This snapshot fixes a lot of quiet moments that shouldn't have been quiet:

• TNT ignition. Lighting TNT with flint and steel or a fire charge now makes a sound.
• Flint and steel with tnt_explodes off. The click now plays even when the game rule stops TNT from exploding.
• Dispensers. Dispensed items with special behavior now play their use sound more consistently. A dispenser placing an armor stand now plays the placement sound.
• Saddle slot items. Items that go in the saddle slot and have their own equip sound now play it when you saddle a mob.
• Stonecutter. Clicking empty parts of the block selection screen no longer makes a click.
• Book and quill. Trying to turn past the 100-page limit no longer plays the page sound.

Gameplay and block fixes

These are small, but a couple of them change how things work in survival:

• World border. Endermen and anything teleporting with chorus fruit could slip through the world border. That's fixed.
• Sculk shriekers. Breaking an armor stand in one hit now triggers shriekers.
• Villagers and shears. Using shears on a villager holding out certain items no longer knocks those items loose.
• Mushrooms. You can now place mushrooms on thin blocks that give central support, which matches Bedrock Edition.
• End sky. A bug where the sky in End biomes was no longer black has been fixed.

Ice caves and world generation

Ice caves are the new cave biome in this drop. They form under frozen, cold and semi-cold surface biomes and are full of packed ice, icicles and glowing ice crystals.

Two world generation bugs got fixed:

• Ice caves are now in the #is_cave biome tag. Before this snapshot, they were missing from it.
• Gravel blobs are back. They had stopped generating in some biomes where they used to appear. They now generate there again.

Menus, text and controls

The rest of the list is interface cleanup:

• Mob statistics now have a space between the mob's name and its description.
• The "Unknown element name" codec error now has its missing space.
• The debug overlay no longer misspells "Vegetation" and "Continents".
• In the sign editor, you can tab away from the Done button again.
• Only the correct mouse button selects entries in the world, server and language lists, and only the correct one applies command autocomplete.
• Middle-clicking in Survival, Creative or Adventure and then switching to Spectator no longer opens the Spectator hotbar.
• The taskbar shows the game's logo instead of the Java logo.
• The name_tag_distance attribute no longer overrides below_name_distance.

How to try 26.4 Snapshot 4

Snapshot 4 is a Java Edition snapshot. To play it:

1. Back up any world you plan to open, or start a fresh test world instead.
2. In the Minecraft Launcher, pick the version named 26.4-snapshot-4.
3. Make sure you have Java SE 25 or newer, since this snapshot needs it.

Bedrock players get experimental versions of the Fourth Drop features in Bedrock Edition 26.60, before the finished release.

What the Fourth Drop adds

Snapshot 4 is easier to follow once you know what 26.4 brings overall. Here's the short version:

Addition	Type	Quick summary
Ice caves	Biome	Cave biome under cold surface biomes, with packed ice, calcite and higher ore chances
Icicle	Block	Spike block. Stalactites fall and deal damage, and grow longer under packed ice
Ice crystal	Block	Generates on ice cave floors and gives off light level 4
Frostbite	Mob	Zombie variant. It freezes you with melee or throws ice balls
Ice ball	Item	Throwable projectile dropped by frostbites, also used to brew Freezing potions
Potion and Arrow of Freezing	Items	Apply the Freezing effect
Freezing	Effect	Damages and slows the target. Blazes, magma cubes and striders take five times the damage

The full drop is planned for the fourth quarter of 2026, as Java Edition 26.4 and Bedrock Edition 26.70. The Fourth Drop 2026 guide explains each feature in more detail.

While you wait for 26.4

To see the newest version the moment Mojang posts it, check the Minecraft update tracker.

If you want a live world to play in the meantime, JukeZone (play.jukezone.net) is free for both Java and Bedrock players, with a nightclub built inside a giant jukebox at spawn.

The giant jukebox nightclub at spawn, filmed on JukeZone.

Want to talk about the snapshot with other players? Drop your finds in the JukeZone forums.