Original post here: https://lemmy.world/post/1720916

Yes, different instance account but same user. I link all my instance accounts on my profile page for transparency.

FINALLY after months of frustration I have figured it out - and it was with the help of my 8yo (8 year old [child]). 8yo is the 7yo from my first post. A birthday came and went while figuring this mess out.

I believe this was a fault of the Microsoft parental controls with Minecraft, and various Minecraft online spin-off games, and NOT Nintendo’s.

8yo added 6yo as a Cross-platform friend using 6yo’s Xbox gamertag on Minecraft on their tablet. Then we all went through the hand mom your switches so she can type this mess out for you and they added each other as friends. Problem solved?! Nope. Not quite yet. This was step one.

Step two was me going into the Xbox Family app on my phone, and changing the following settings:

• Decide if [redacted] can add friends without your approval ✅ Allowed

• Choose who [redacted] can communicate with on Xbox Live ✅ Everyone

Under Minecraft specifically

• See and upload community creations: Decide whose community creations [redacted] can see. Blocking this may affect whether [redacted] can upload their own creations to games. ✅ Everyone

• Clubs: This lets [redacted] create, join, and follow clubs for all allowed games, including Minecraft Realms. ✅ Allowed

I had already allowed the Minecraft multiplayer option before and that alone didn’t work.

I also set up everyone as a favorite friend, and they can all play together across Minecraft, Minecraft Dungeons, and Minecraft Legends on their switches.

I feel like this process was way too convoluted. There may be some options I turned on that don’t need to be on, but I’m including what I did specifically on the off chance that there’s another frustrated parent out there with multiple kids wanting to play local multiplayer on Minecraft on their switches while logged into their Microsoft account.

Edit: fixed auto correct fails because words are hard