Minecraft: Elytra Not Working? Here’s How To Solve It

Minecraft flaunts a massive range of awesome gear and equipment for players to use, many of which afford some really overpowered boosts and benefits. The Elytra wings have become a pretty popular option for plenty of Minecraft players worldwide. But, they can cause issues for some, leaving quite a few players wondering why their Minecraft Elytra wings are not working as well as how to solve it.

Minecraft Elytra

In Minecraft, the Elytra is an amazing pair of wings that is rare to find and can typically be obtained through exploring end ships. More specifically, Elytra wings can be found in end cities in item frames, located in the treasure room – which houses two loot chests for the bravest Minecraft players and is protected by Shulker guards.

These wings are the only single-item source of flight when playing Minecraft survival mode, making them really valuable to countless Minecraft players. The Elytra wings are naturally grey in color, but they will adopt the same color as the cape of the wearer, meaning that there is a massive selection of possible colors or patterns, and they can be equipped in the player’s chest plate slot for their armor.

Elytra wings have a regular speed of about 7.2 m/s (obtained by gliding at the altitude cap with a strong upward pitch of 30°), according to the Minecraft Wiki. But, there are a few ways that players can increase the speed of their Elytra wings, namely through Powered Flight using firework rockets.

Minecraft Elytra not working

As loveable as the Elytra wings are in Minecraft, quite a few players have started experiencing various issues while trying to use them. Saying that they are simply “not working” is still pretty vague, as many players have actually been experiencing varied problems with the Elytra wings.

It’s quite common for players to face a variety of problems with their Elytra wings. The most common problems experienced with Elytra wings in Minecraft have been described below:

• Elytra does not work at all
• Elytra wings have inconsistent use
• Elytra cannot receive speed boosts from rockets

The main reason behind players’ Elytras not working seems to be linked to 3 primary bugs, all of which have been reported by Mojang. The details for each of these bugs have been detailed below:

Updating from Minecraft 1.15.2 to 1.17.1

Firework boosting doesn’t work

Unloaded chunks or changing dimensions

While this is unfortunate, and Mojang has listed these bugs as resolved, many players may still encounter similar bugs when updating or when in similar circumstances. But, there may still be a couple of ways to get around such bugs.

How to solve Elytra not working?

There is a range of possible causes for players experiencing varied problems with their Elytra wings in Minecraft, some of which are influenced by factors on the player’s end and others which may be due to issues on the developers’ end. Below are some of the most probable reasons for players experiencing any type of problem with their Elytra wings, as well as what you could try to solve the issue.

Repair Elytra wings

Of course, the most reasonable of all explanations would be that the pair of Elytra wings needs to be repaired. Elytra wings in Minecraft will not work correctly once their durability goes down since their durability points drop by one for each second that the player is in the air.

This equates to 432 durability points which will allow 7 minutes and 12 seconds of gliding time without enchantments, providing over 10,000 blocks of transport distance for players. Once a pair of Elytra wings’ durability hits 1, the wings will stop working until they are repaired again.

Having enchantments like Unbreaking on your Elytra wings can greatly aid its durability and repair, while having the Mending enchantment will repair the Elytra pair while players gather experience. At the time of writing, there are a few ways players can repair their Elytra wings:

Combine 2 damaged Elytras

Players will be able to repair their broken Elytra wings by combining two pairs of damaged Elytra wings on a crafting table or on a grindstone. This will lead to a repaired pair of Elytra wings that should function as per usual.

Anvil & phantom membranes

Alternatively, players can repair their Elytra wings at an anvil using phantom membranes, which also preserves enchantments on Elytra. Each phantom membrane restores 108 durability points, amounting to 25% of Elytra’s total durability. But, it does come with a prior work penalty.

Plugins

In some cases, having plugins such as Protection plugins and Anti-lag plugins could lead to an issue. If this is the cause, players could try temporarily disabling these, or uninstalling and reinstalling them.

Other fixes

There are a few other more odd ways that players have managed to solve the issue with their Elytra wings. While there are no promises here, you could try the methods below as a last resort:

• Restart the server
• OP and then de-OP yourself
• Disconnect and reconnect to the server

Identifying the type of problem or issue that you have while trying to use the Elytra wings in your Minecraft playthrough is really important since you will need this information to progress in finding a suitable solution. That being said, since players do not typically have the exact same issue in their playthrough, finding a solid fix for your Elytra wings will likely take some trial and error.

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