How To Reload Chunks In Minecraft: The Guide

If you play a lot of Minecraft, you’ve undoubtedly experienced random glitches like NPCs falling through the ground or specific areas that have disappeared for no reason. In this case, you’re likely experiencing a broken chunk.

Broken chunks can be frustrating, especially when playing on a server. However, all is not lost! There are ways to fix broken areas by reloading chunks. This guide covers everything you need to know about the chunk reloading process, as well as a few other ways to solve the issue.

Speaking of servers, if you’re looking to play on a Minecraft: Java Edition server with friends, NameHero has you covered. We offer various tiers for up to 32 players, and most packages come with server backups, DDOS protection, and more.

Otherwise, let’s get into the guide.

What Are Chunks In Minecraft’s World?

A chunk is a 16×16 set of blocks that reach from Minecraft’s peak height, 320 blocks, all the way down to its lowest height, -64. These chunks comprise Minecraft’s entire world and are divided into groups to manage the game’s performance.

For example, when you begin a Minecraft world, the game generates chunks in a 19×19 width around your avatar. You can adjust this distance in the settings menu.

Minecraft only loads a certain amount of chunks at a time, which is why the game can run on various devices. However, once a chunk is loaded, it will remain the same as long as you play in that world. It won’t suddenly load into a different biome or contain new resources.

This can be an issue when you’ve been playing on one world for a long time, as you’ll have to travel far to experience new biomes. As you continue to load new chunks, your world size gets larger and becomes increasingly taxing on your device.

Over time, some of these chunks might cause visual glitches or performance issues, causing several problems that affect your gameplay experience. If this is happening in your world, you can try to reload chunks in Minecraft.

What Does It Mean To Reload Chunks In Minecraft?

A big Minecraft world may consist of tens of thousands of chunks. Loading that many chunks is sure to cause glitches, lag, and other issues. Reloading chunks allows the game to, well, reload chunks in the surrounding area.

While reloading chunks doesn’t delete structures or other buildings within a chunk, it can resolve any performance issues caused by a defective chunk. This is due to the game retrying the loading process and giving it a chance to solve whatever issue happened the first time around — similar to how you may restart an app if it’s running poorly.

How To Reload Chunks In Minecraft

There are two ways to reload chunks in Minecraft. Fortunately, both methods are pretty straightforward.

How to reload chunks in Minecraft while in-game

If you’re playing the game and notice a defective chunk, make sure to note the chunk coordinates so you can return to it later. Whenever you return, you can press F3+A while standing near it. This will reload the chunks immediately surrounding your location.

You’ll receive a confirmation in the game’s chat box if the action worked. That said, you can also run around and load the previously affected chunks to see if they’re back to normal.

How to reload chunks in Minecraft outside of the map

If you tried the above steps, and the world generation still produces messed-up chunks, you can try reloading the entire world.

In this case, all you need to do is close Minecraft and relaunch it. Then, the game automatically reloads all chunks as you enter your world.

Alternative Ways To Fix Lag In Minecraft

If you’ve tried reloading chunks and your world is still experiencing lag or other issues, the following methods might help you out.

Allocate more RAM to Minecraft

Allocating more RAM to Minecraft can help fix many performance issues. We have a guide on the topic, but here’s a simple overview.

The more RAM Minecraft can utilize, the more it can load into your device’s memory. More memory means your computer can run larger Minecraft worlds without issue. However, you can only allocate so much RAM to Minecraft, and allocating too much might cause even more problems.

Lower your render distance

Your render distance setting adjusts how many chunks your game will load at once. The higher the setting, the more chunks Minecraft will render from your player’s current position. If you have a lower-end device, it’s best to have a lower value.

To lower this setting, pause Minecraft and click Options.

Then, select Video Settings.

Adjust the render distance via the Render Distance tab.

Install Optifine

Optifine is a mod client that adds various additional settings for you to tweak. Upon installing Optifine, you can adjust tons of settings, such as antialiasing and anisotropic filtering.

Many players report higher framerates and better performance after installing Optifine.

We have a guide about installing Optifine. You can check it out here.

Uninstall mods

If you play Minecraft with many mods, it might be time to uninstall one or two. While no one wants to lose their add-ons, removing a few might be the key to better performance.

Alternatively, you can invest in a more powerful device that runs mods and manages a higher render distance. Of course, that depends on your real-life situation. Otherwise, we hope this guide helped you with your world’s broken chunks.