Minecraft Java 26.4 Snapshot 4 released on 13 October 2026. It is a smaller follow-up to Snapshot 3, which brought the Ice Caves drop to Java, and it adds two things players will notice straight away: brittle ice, a block that breaks under you, and a jukebox that plays a whole playlist from a chest on top of it.
Image: Mojang Studios, from the official 26.4 Snapshot 4 announcement.
RateData pack 124.0, resource pack 100.1
XP levelJava 26.4 Snapshot 4
Build time13 October 2026
DifficultyIntermediate
Snapshot features can change before release. Test them in a copy of a world, never your main save. Snapshot 4 also has a known Vulkan issue: resizing the window can crash and lock up the game, so play fullscreen or switch the renderer if you hit it.
Everything new, at a glance
| Change |
What it does |
| Brittle ice |
Cracks and breaks when a player or mob stands on it; generates in ice cave crevasses |
| Jukebox playlists |
Plays every music disc in a chest placed directly above it, in order, on a loop |
| Ice sounds |
Blue, packed and frosted ice each get their own sounds |
| Frosted ice |
Emits a vibration when it changes state, so sculk sensors pick it up |
| Drowned in powder snow |
Turn into a zombie first, then into a frostbite |
| Freezing immunity |
Drowned, zombies and husks no longer take freezing damage in powder snow |
| Bug fixes |
36 issues fixed |
Brittle ice
Brittle ice is the new block of this snapshot, and it lives in a new terrain feature: crevasses, narrow tapered cracks carved into ice caves. That is the only place it generates naturally.
How it behaves:
- It breaks under you. When a player or a mob steps on brittle ice, it starts to crack and then breaks. Treat a crevasse floor as something to cross quickly, not something to stand on.
- Frostbites can walk on it safely. They do not break it, which makes crevasses a natural place for them to chase you across while the floor gives way under you.
- Silk Touch gets it. Mine it with a Silk Touch tool to take it home.
- You can make it. Water that touches blue ice from the side turns into brittle ice. That means you do not need to find a crevasse to get some, only blue ice and a water bucket.
Because it breaks under any mob but frostbites, brittle ice is an obvious candidate for drop traps and parkour maps once 26.4 releases. Whether the timing is reliable enough for a farm is something to test in your own world, since the snapshot changelog does not give a break time.
Jukebox playlists
The jukebox gets its biggest change in years: put a chest, trapped chest or any copper chest directly on top of it, fill the chest with music discs, and the jukebox plays them as a playlist.
The exact rules:
- Discs play in slot order, left to right, top to bottom. Empty slots and items that are not music discs are skipped.
- When a disc ends, the jukebox swaps it for the next disc in the chest.
- At the end of the chest it loops back to the first disc.
- No discs in the chest? The jukebox loops whatever disc is already inside it.
- Ejecting the current disc skips to the next one.
The jukebox also has a new texture. For data pack authors, the containers that work on top are listed in the new #jukebox_containers item tag.
If you collect discs, this turns a disc wall into an actual music room: one chest above one jukebox replaces a row of jukeboxes and buttons.
Ice blocks and mobs
Ice looks and sounds better. Ice and frosted ice no longer render their inner faces when placed next to each other, so walls of ice look clean. Blue, packed and frosted ice each get their own sounds instead of sharing one.
Frosted ice is now detectable. It emits a vibration when it changes state, so a sculk sensor can react to Frost Walker ice melting.
Drowned and powder snow. A drowned in powder snow now turns into a zombie first and then into a frostbite, instead of skipping a step. Drowned, zombies and husks are all immune to freezing damage, so in powder snow they convert rather than freeze to death. If you built a frostbite converter that feeds in drowned, expect it to take longer, since each drowned now converts twice.
For data pack and resource pack authors
- Pack formats: data pack 124.0, resource pack 100.1. Minimum Java runtime is Java 25.
- Fluids: the
flowing_water and flowing_lava fluid types are gone. Fluid types now carry level and source properties, and the #water and #lava fluid tags are deprecated.
- Block predicates:
matching_fluids gained a state field.
- Worldgen: a new
crevasse feature type carves tapered terrain, with fields such as max_width and max_length.
- Sounds: new sound events for blue, brittle, frosted and packed ice, and for a drowned converting to a zombie.
What this means for 26.4
Snapshot 4 fills out the Ice Caves drop rather than starting something new, which usually means the cycle is getting closer to pre-releases. Mojang has still not announced a release date; our 26.4 release date page tracks the window and everything confirmed so far. Before you move a real world to 26.4 when it lands, read how to update Minecraft safely.
Frequently asked questions
What is brittle ice in Minecraft?
A block added in 26.4 Snapshot 4 that cracks and breaks when a player or mob stands on it. It generates in crevasses inside ice caves, frostbites can walk on it without breaking it, and you can collect it with Silk Touch.
How do you make brittle ice?
Water that touches blue ice from the side turns into brittle ice, so a water bucket and some blue ice are enough.
How do jukebox playlists work?
Place a chest, trapped chest or copper chest directly on top of a jukebox and fill it with music discs. The jukebox plays them in slot order, swaps to the next disc when one ends, and loops back to the start.
Can a hopper feed the jukebox playlist?
The snapshot changelog only describes a chest placed directly above the jukebox. Use a chest on top for now.
Data pack 124.0 and resource pack 100.1, with Java 25 as the minimum runtime.
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