How to download Minecraft Fabric 1.21

Mods are one of the most important features of the Java Edition of Minecraft. These fan-made projects have added thousands of hours of playtime to the game, thanks to the creative ideas introduced and implemented by the community. However, they cannot run natively and require a modloader to work.

There are two main modloaders out there: Fabric and Forge. Fabric is the mod loader most commonly associated with aesthetic mods and optimization, making it a great option to make a custom modpack with.

The process for manually installing the Fabric modloader for 1.21 is detailed below.

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Steps to manually install Fabric for Minecraft 1.21

1) Go to the Fabric website

The Fabric website (Image via Fabric)

Fabric Website: https://fabricmc.net

The first thing you'll need to do when manually installing Fabric is go to their official website. This is where you can find the development history for the Minecraft mod loader, along with mod development tools and the Fabric installer.

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2) Download the installer

The download button for Fabric's automatic installer (Image via Fabric)

Hit the bright blue "Download" button on the website's homepage to navigate to the installer's download page. There is a download link here for the installer on Windows, as well as a universal jar file.

There are also other installation methods listed here, such as the use of one of Minecraft's many alternative launchers, like CurseForge or MultiMC.

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3) Set the game version

A properly set 1.21 Fabric installer (Image via Fabric)

The first option available to players within the Fabric installer is the version of the game being modded. Make sure the installer is set to Minecraft 1.21. Leave the loader version alone unless you know exactly what you're doing. Unnecessarily changing the version of the mod loader can cause stability issues down the line.

There's also a checkbox for creating a new profile. Leaving this checked will create a separate modded installation within the game's official launcher, leaving vanilla as an option. Unchecking this box will install Fabric to your main game installation.

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4) Open the launcher and test

The game's official launcher with a 1.21 Fabric profile (Image via Mojang)

Assuming that you left the "Create Profile" checkbox checked, there's an incredibly easy way to make sure that Fabric is installed properly. Open the game's launcher. The selected profile should be for the 1.21 version of Fabric. If it's not, check through your list of installations to see if it's there, as it might just not be selected. If the installation is still missing, try re-installing the game and then Fabric.

Note that, like previously mentioned, since the "Create Profile" checkbox was left selected, there's still a "Latest Release" option for players wanting to play 1.21 without using any of Minecraft's best mods.