Minecraft announces 1.21 Cloud Update for Education Edition

Minecraft: Education Edition is receiving a new and somewhat unsuspecting update via version 1.21.0.1, which will implement the ability for worlds to be uploaded and downloaded from Microsoft OneDrive's cloud storage system within the base 1.21 Tricky Trials update. Mojang has slated the release of the update for "next week" and will be accessible via the Education Edition Preview system.

Currently, this cloud storage update preview will be available on Windows, Chromebook, and Android platforms. Players using it will also require a Microsoft account with OneDrive functionality, as one might expect, to save and import their worlds from cloud storage as needed.

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What to know about the 1.21 Cloud Storage Update for Minecraft: Education Edition

Cloud storage can be accessed in this Minecraft Education Preview via the settings and world menus (Image via Mojang)

As previously mentioned, this update will be released (initially) on Minecraft Education Preview, so players will have to download the preview version to access it on their Windows PC, Android device, or Chromebook. Their school account used for Education Edition will also need to be linked to OneDrive by using the account to sign into Live.com.

Whatever the case, once OneDrive is active, instructors and students can access this Minecraft Education Preview and automatically save worlds to OneDrive on their device where they will have their own dedicated folder. Moreover, users can import saved worlds to their "My Worlds" screen as long as cloud saving has been enabled in the settings.

Additionally, the OneDrive button within the settings allows educators to access previous versions of a saved world thanks to the OneDrive button's "version history" feature if world owners need to roll back their worlds. All the needed files will be in users' OneDrive folders for safekeeping, and as long as they don't delete any files/folders within, the cloud storage should work quite well.

The main menu of the Cloud Update for Minecraft Education Preview (Image via Mojang)

Thanks to OneDrive's compatibility with Microsoft's account services, as long as a world is saved to OneDrive, it can be imported into other compatible Windows/Android/Chromebook devices as long as users log into the same school account. This way, educators can easily share their worlds with students and keep them saved when any potential changes are made to them during lessons.

Moreover, since this particular Education Edition update is post-1.21, the worlds saved to OneDrive should be compatible with all the blocks, entities, and features introduced in the Tricky Trials update. They may not necessarily be conducive to the learning environment, but they're available to be used by instructors in their worlds all the same.