How to freeze time in Minecraft Bedrock

The day-night cycle of Minecraft is one of its most iconic features. Few moments for players are as iconic as not having a starter base ready before nightfall and seeing the different hostile mobs start to spawn. However, there is an option to stop the day-night cycle for survival worlds while still allowing hostile mobs to spawn in caves and darker areas.

The process for disabling Bedrock's day and night cycles can be found below for players who would rather the surface remain safe at all times.

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How to stop the passage of time in Minecraft Bedrock

1) Open the world's settings

The location of the world settings menu from the world selection screen (Image via Mojang)

The first step to disabling time in Bedrock is to get to the world's settings. This can be done from the main menu by hitting the "Play" button and then the pencil icon next to the world. It can also be accessed from within the game itself by pausing and then hitting the "Settings" button. Make sure the selected tab is the "Game Settings" tab, as this is where the time control cheats are.

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2) Turn on cheats

The location of the cheat toggle (Image via Mojang)

Once in a world's settings menu, the first thing to do is enable cheats. This will disable achievements, though Minecraft achievements can be re-enabled for PC Bedrock players. This is the first toggle under the "Cheats" subheading and must be activated before other cheats.

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3) Switch time toggles

The toggle for the "Do Daylight Cycle" setting (Image via Mojang)

There are actually two different toggles that control time in Bedrock. The first of these is the "Do Daylight Cycle" toggle. This one controls whether or not the game's sun will move across the sky. Whenever it is off, time will freeze, whether it is day or night.

The other switch is the "Always Day" option. Turning it on will automatically turn off the daylight cycle toggle, as they can't both be selected. Either option works for turning off the passage of time.

One of Minecraft's many useful commands can also disable the daylight cycle from within the game, assuming cheats are already enabled. Simply type "/gamerule dodaylightcycle false" into chat and press enter. This will switch the setting from the game itself without needing to open the menu.

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4) Test in-game

The time command can also be used to make a permanent sunrise or set (Image via Mojang)

With the settings switched over, the final step is to launch into the world and check the skies. The sun should no longer be moving at all, frozen in place for the rest of time. If the world was in the middle of a hostile mob-filled night, there is a way to fix it.

Open the chat and type "/time set day". This command will set the world back to daylight, where it will remain for the rest of its existence. That being said, a permanent night-time world is technically frozen in time, just in a much harder way. It would also make for a fun Minecraft challenge run.