BDS requires online subscription even in offline mode

I have this exact issue, also starting with 1.13, but the issue persists on 1.14.1.4.  I tried creating a brand new world, but same outcome. I'm running BDS on Ubuntu. 

@Jon Tabor

So. It turns out that the BDS now works if you have an Xbox Live subscription.

I find this slightly ridiculous, as I'm now paying Microsoft for online gaming to a laptop on my own LAN. (i.e. to access content that is not out in the big wide world, but local).

Given that this was not a requirement before the 1.13 update, I still see this as a bug.

@Adrian Lonsdale

I concur, having an Xbox Live subscription is not mentioned as a requirement, ergo the requirement that it have one to function is indeed a bug.  The closest things I can find are in the server.properties file (online-mode=true), and the whitelist.json file needs the Xbox Live gamertag.  However, at least for "online-mode=true", in the past that has not required an Xbox Live subscription, merely being logged in on the Xbox.

My hunch is this has to do with the whitelisting features.  However, even when a whitelist is not used, the problem persists.

Can someone officially comment on whether or not an XBox Live subscription is now required for XBox to be able to join a Bedrock Dedicated Server instance, even on the same LAN?

Hi Jon/Adrian,

What is leading you to think you need an Xbox Live sub? I'm not saying you're wrong, but I have multiple BDS instances myself and have a test Xbox on my LAN and have not needed to upgrade to a Gold sub to join, so am just looking for some clarification so I can do some testing. I just have the free account and am testing bugs from here daily without issue.

Ionic

I don't have Xbox Live subscription beyond the free one, so I can't comment on if it's really a requirement.  Adrian indicated that it was such, but I'm unable to verify, and unwilling to sign up for a subscription just to find out.

All I can say for sure is that on my Xbox, when my BDS is running it shows that I have 1 friend online, but when you go to that tab, the BDS is not listed.  

I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't BDS related specifically, though.  Yesterday, while testing, I loaded up a bit of software called phantom (https://github.com/jhead/phantom), which essentially is a proxy server that makes remote Minecraft servers appear as local LAN servers.  By using this with an external server (not BDS), it acted the same way - namely, showed that I had 1 friend online, but did not show the server in the list.

Unfortunately, I'm at a loss as to what the issue is.  Both my BDS and my Xbox are on the same LAN.  All firewalls on the LAN are disabled.  The only firewalling I have is on my WAN connection to the outside world, though I do have that fairly restrictive (but I've had it that way forever, even when it was working).  

Does the Xbox need to "call home" over the internet to validate something, and perhaps I'm blocking it?  Does the BDS need to "call home" for any reason, and I might be blocking?  I really don't know at this point, but I'd love any insight.  My gut feeling - and 20+ years in IT - tell me this is maybe something network related.

I had a standard Xbox Live account (the free one) and the BDS didn't work. As soon as I took a Gold account, it started working.

I did some more testing; part of my firewall config is to not allow UPnP, which I know the Xbox prefers to have.  So I was thinking perhaps this was causing some issues with detecting friends (and BDS).  To that end, I enabled it on my firewall, and I instructed the Xbox to re-test my NAT configuration.  I could see it accessing UPnP via the logs, and the Xbox correctly identified my NAT type as 'open.'

Unfortunately, it did not make a difference.  The situation remains.

I've just tried to reproduce this and my experience was a little different so just need to check in with others here.

I started a BDS server in offline mode on my local network. I then loaded up Minecraft (1.16.1) on my PS4 which does not have PS+. The server showed in the Friends tab but when joining I was taken to the PS Store and told to purchase PS+.

The same occured on my Switch.

That differs to the Xbox experience mentioned here where the digit on the tab shows the server but its not listed. Can someone with an Xbox and no XBL please test this and post the results? Unfortunately I have XBL and its set as my home Xbox so any account I sign in with "inherits" the XBL Gold status from my primary account.

Hi just re-visited this issue by starting from scratch.  Note that I do not have XBL.  I downloaded the latest BDS (1.16.201.02) and set it up, in it's default state, on my Ubuntu 18.04 system.  Same issue as initially described – on the Xbox the "friends" tab shows "1" in the tab, but no servers are listed.

I then fired up a Windows 10 system and did the same test.  Same result.

MCPE-60667

it's been 3 years & 5 months and this is still a problem

When you start a local area network play session, It isn't an online play session so there's no sense to ask for online play subscription

Just started happening for me.   Mojang will you refund me money for buying playstation plus to continue playing?

Cmon Just fix This Already

Confirmed still an issue today on the PS4, update 1.20.2. My kids just got Kindles and I wanted to play together with them with cross-play instead of splitscreen, but no such luck. I spent two hours sorting through the web of permissions and privacy settings in both PSN and xbox live, only to hit the PS+ paywall for creating and joining LAN games. Very disappointing, and seemingly unnecessary.

4 years, yes 4

at this point why don't you guys admit that this is intended and close the issue.

I have just installed a MC Bedrock 1.20.5 server at home to play with my family, and this is still a problem. Does anyone know a fix or a workaround? I dont want to buy a PS Plus for all that needs to play, so i might just as well get a refund.