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I bought a Minecraft account for my little brother for Christmas, and I'd like to play with him on my server every now and then. If I log in while he's on, however, it kicks him off since we have the same username. Is there any way to change my username so that I can play with him, or anything I can do so that we can both play together using this account on my server?

I'm open to anything that could let us play, whether it be username changes, server property changes, etc.

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    If you're open to anything you should buy another account for your brother.
    – MBraedley
    Commented Dec 30, 2013 at 2:40
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    Doing this violates the Minecraft TOS. You are not allowed to let another player use your account. "When you buy our Game, we give you permission to install the Game on your own personal computer and use and play it on that computer as set out in this EULA. This permission is personal to you, so you are not allowed to distribute the Game (or any part of it) to anyone else. This also means you cannot sell or rent the Game, or make it available for access to other people and you cannot pass on or resell any licence keys."
    – MrLemon
    Commented Dec 8, 2014 at 9:57
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    @MrLemon Depends. That part's only been added recently, if you've bought your account previously then the EULA stated that you can share and sell your account.
    – SirBenet
    Commented Dec 11, 2014 at 21:33
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    @colorfusion hm... never thought about it that way. Now that I think about it, the current EULA only needs to be accepted for running a server, not for playing the game. Alright then.
    – MrLemon
    Commented Dec 12, 2014 at 9:15
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    @MrLemon - However it is considered 'Fair and Reasonable' for the OP to share his account with his brother: gaming.stackexchange.com/a/209988/28182, (but of course, logging in at the same time is a no-no)
    – Robotnik ♦
    Commented Jun 16, 2015 at 8:56

2 Answers 2

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1. Configure server online-mode off

If you are using a proper server you'll need to set "online-mode" to "false" in the server properties. You can ignore this step if you're using in-client LAN.

  • Edit server.properties found in the parent folder of your minecraft folder.
  • Find and update online-mode=false

The first player should now be able to connect fine as normal with the proper account name, or start the LAN server.

2. Modify displayname of second player

To get the second person connected, first go to your .minecraft folder. Find launcher_profiles.json and open it up with a text editor.

Near the end of the file you should find "displayName": and then your current display name. Edit your name to anything different, keeping the "s either side of it. Make sure that it's a valid username (only use A-Z, 1-9, and _, not over 16 characters, etc.).

enter image description here

3. Preventing correction of the file

This stage doesn't always seem to be required. If you're having trouble with your name being auto-corrected you may need to either disconnect your Internet, or make the launcher_profiles.json file read only after having edited your name.

To make the file read only on Windows: right click it, click "Properties", and then tick "Read-only" in the "Attributes" section of the "General" tab.

After you've done that, or if it worked originally, open up your launcher. You should see your edited name in the bottom right:

enter image description here

4. Start minecraft

You can now start minecraft. You can also connect your Internet or make the file writable at this point. Hopefully, you should now be able to join the server with a different name and without kicking off the other player.

Your name may be automatically be corrected if you start the launcher with your Internet connected and the launcher_profiles.json file not on read-only. You will also be unable to join proper online servers with the fake name, however you can use this method to set it back to your original name, or relog to have the launcher correct it.

Note to others: This doesn't allow piracy in any way. You still need to have a paid account and all of the game files downloaded. It's pretty much the same as /nick on modded servers.

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    This is exactly what I needed! I built a few batch files to handle it for me too, so that makes things even easier. Thanks, you rock!
    – vaindil
    Commented Dec 30, 2013 at 4:54
  • So you are pretty much "ticking" the game, to go into offline mode (so that it doesn't modify your username), and then you reconnect to play online. I've tried that with both Hamachi Server and LAN game, and both times my secondary game will be stuck at the "Loggin In" screen and not do anything... Any advice?
    – oliver_siegel
    Commented Aug 11, 2014 at 9:46
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    I just made the launcher_profiles.json file read-only after changing the displayName. This seems to work also, I don't have to disconnect from internet, and it still uses my modified name. Does this work for other people also? Or maybe it causes errors later on if I do this?
    – Peter
    Commented Aug 27, 2014 at 19:25
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    This totally worked... thanks! On a mac, the launcher_profiles.json file can be found here: ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/launcher_profiles.json
    – Brad Parks
    Commented Mar 21, 2015 at 22:03
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    As of Minecraft 1.8, player data is stored by uuid, not playername. I'd have to do some testing, but I have a hunch that this doesn't work anymore.
    – Unionhawk ♦
    Commented Sep 23, 2015 at 19:19
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In a way yes, although in another way no. You can't be in the exact same server although you can be on the same server but on different bungeecord servers. A bungeecord server is where the there can be multiple servers in one minecraft server. For example "Mineplex" it has many different lobby's all on different bungeecord servers if one person was on one lobby and the other person on that same account on another then yes, you can be on the same account on the same server.

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