Black Screen After Log In

I've been playing Minecraft on a PC and just got a Mac laptop (OSX 10.7.5). Since the server I regularly play on has numerous mods (using Forge ModLoader), I decided to copy over my .minecraft files. I followed what instructions I could find and placed the .minecraft folder in my ~/Library/Application Support folder and renamed it to minecraft. Upon launching Minecraft, the initial launch screen displays properly and I attempt to log in.

However, the Minecraft window proceeds to turn black. It still seems to be "responsive" (as clicking on the window doesn't make it turn gray and show the 'unresponsive' status), but it does not proceed from there. I don't see the Mojang loading screen nor do I make any other progress.

Most advice says to delete my minecraft folder and restart the launcher, but this will result in a fresh (as of now) 1.4.7 installation. The server I play on runs 1.4.6 along with a host of mods, so that option is a no-go.

Solution 1:

There is a small folder inside the minecraft/bin folder called natives. This folder contains files that have platform-specific code. When you copied over your install, you copied over the Windows-native files in this folder. As a result, the game fails to run.

You can fix this by replacing the contents of that folder with the correct files from a valid 1.4.6 installation that was done on a Mac.

I'm not entirely certain how you can do that, but the files from a 1.4.7 install may work if in fact Mojang have not changed very much except for some classes in the main jar file. Archive your modded install somewhere else, install MC 1.4.7 fresh, and save the natives folder it generates somewhere convenient. Wipe the rest and put your modded install back in place, remove its Windows-based natives folder, and drop in your new one. See if it runs.

If using a 1.4.7 natives folder doesn't work though, one way to try would be to use Minecraft Nostalgia, which can downgrade the latest version of Minecraft to an arbitrary previous version. (I've used it for downgrading to 1.2.5 for modding purposes, but I haven't done it on a Mac. It appears to support Win/Mac/Linux though.)

You would safely archive your modded install, wipe it from the minecraft/ folder, then run the vanilla launcher to get 1.4.7. Close it out, then run Minecraft Nostalgia, choosing 1.4.6 from the list. Once it's done the conversion, grab the minecraft/bin/natives folder for later. Wipe the rest, put your modded install in, and delete the minecraft/bin/natives folder that came from Windows. Finally, drop in your natives/ folder gleaned from MC Nostalgia, cross your fingers, and launch!

Again, I've never had to do this, but it should work.

Solution 2:

According to Mojang:

1.4.6 clients can play on 1.4.7 servers, and 1.4.7 clients on 1.4.6 servers

So don't worry about the update, just go ahead and let the launcher redownload. It's even possible your bug was fixed in 1.4.7.

Mods should work too:

[M]ods that have been updated for 1.4.6 should work in 1.4.7 too. The only affected file is the one called “qz”, which is the arrow projectile’s class.