Litematica Not Working? Fix It by Symptom

“Litematica is not working” can mean four very different problems, and each one has a different fix. Either the mod never loads at all, the mod loads but the menu will not open, a schematic placement exists but the hologram is invisible, or the hologram is visible but blocks will not go in. Work through the quick checks first, then jump to the section that matches your symptom — most cases are solved by one wrong version number or one file in the wrong folder, not by anything complicated.

First: The Three Universal Checks

Before chasing your specific symptom, confirm these three things. They sit underneath almost every Litematica problem:

1. One Litematica jar and one MaLiLib jar, matched to your Minecraft version. Litematica cannot run without MaLiLib, and both are locked to the game version. The current pairs are: Minecraft 26.3 → Litematica 0.29.1 + MaLiLib 0.30.2; 26.2 → 0.28.8 + 0.29.6; 26.1 / 26.1.1 / 26.1.2 → 0.27.14 + 0.28.12; 1.21.11 → 0.26.16 + 0.27.20; 1.20.1 → 0.15.4 + 0.16.3. If your mods folder holds an old jar next to the new one, delete the old one — duplicates confuse the loader.
2. You launched a Fabric profile, not vanilla. Litematica is a Fabric mod. If you start the standard Minecraft profile, the mod simply is not there. Fabric API is not required — only the Fabric Loader and MaLiLib.
3. The Java version matches the game. Minecraft 26.x needs Java 25, 1.21.11 needs Java 21, and 1.20.1 needs Java 17. The Minecraft Launcher normally handles this for you; custom launchers may need the runtime set per instance.

Symptom 1: Litematica Does Not Appear in the Game at All

You installed the files, but there is no sign of the mod: it is missing from the mod list, and nothing Litematica-related exists in game.

Most likely causes, in order:

• The jars are in the wrong mods folder. They belong in the mods folder of the game directory you actually launch. If you use a custom launcher (Prism, MultiMC, ATLauncher and similar), each instance has its own game folder — files dropped into the default .minecraft/mods do nothing for an instance stored elsewhere. Use your launcher’s “open folder” option for that instance and check its mods folder.
• You launched the vanilla profile. Re-check the launcher: a Fabric profile must exist and be the one you pressed Play on.
• The file is not really a jar. A download that is still zipped, or renamed to something like .jar.zip, will be ignored. The file name should look like litematica-fabric-26.3-0.29.1.jar — note that the game version is part of the file name, which also tells you whether you grabbed the right build.
• The game refused to start it because MaLiLib is missing or mismatched. In that case the game usually stops with a loader error rather than loading silently — see Symptom 2 of our MaLiLib version mismatch guide for exactly that screen.

If you want a clean slate instead of patching a broken setup, follow the step-by-step install guide from scratch — it ends with two in-game checks that prove the mod loaded.

Symptom 2: The Mod Loads, but the M Menu Will Not Open

The mod is in the mod list, but pressing M — the default key for the Litematica main menu — does nothing.

The short version: something else is probably using that key, or your keyboard layout moved it. On AZERTY keyboards the menu key is the comma key, not M. Other mods (minimap and waypoint mods are frequent offenders) also claim M, and a conflict can leave one of them silent. You can rebind the menu key inside Litematica’s own config GUI once you get it open — the full walkthrough, including how to open the config when the menu key itself is the broken part, is in our guide to the Litematica menu not opening. The complete default key list lives in the keybinds and hotkeys guide.

Symptom 3: The Schematic Is Loaded but the Hologram Is Invisible

You loaded a file, created a placement, and… nothing. No ghost blocks anywhere.

Separate two situations. If the file never showed up in the Load Schematics menu in the first place, the problem is the file or the folder — that is covered in schematics not showing up. If the placement exists in the Placements list but renders nothing, check the render toggles: M + G toggles schematic rendering and M + R toggles all Litematica rendering, and either can be off without you noticing. Also check your Render Layers setting (in the config, M + C): if it is set to a single layer or to “all below” a certain height, only part of the schematic renders, which can look like nothing if you are standing above or below that slice. Finally, make sure the placement itself is enabled in the Placements menu (M + P).

Symptom 4: The Hologram Shows, but Blocks Will Not Place

This one is usually an expectation problem rather than a bug: vanilla Litematica does not place blocks for you in survival. The hologram is a guide — you place each block yourself, by hand, against the ghost image. The one-click paste feature is a Creative-mode helper (in multiplayer it works through /setblock commands and needs the matching permissions), so on a normal survival server it is effectively unavailable.

What Litematica does offer for faster building is Easy Place, which simplifies placing against the hologram. If you have Easy Place on and it still does nothing, work through Easy Place not working. And if you were expecting a fully automatic printer, read why there is no printer in Litematica before troubleshooting further — no setting will turn it on, because the feature is not part of the mod.

Still Stuck?

Narrow it down with the crash and error guides: if the game closes or shows a crash screen, go to Litematica crashing on startup. If a specific error message is on screen, match it against the MaLiLib mismatch guide and the unsupported schematic version guide. And if everything traces back to a messy install, the cleanest fix is a fresh pair of files from the download page — Litematica plus the MaLiLib build for your exact game version. The full index of fixes lives on our Litematica troubleshooting hub.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Litematica not showing up in my mod list?

Almost always one of three things: the jar is in the wrong mods folder (custom launchers give each instance its own folder), you launched the vanilla profile instead of the Fabric profile, or the file is not a real .jar (still zipped or double-named). Check the mods folder of the instance you actually launch first.

Does Litematica need Fabric API?

No. Litematica requires only the Fabric Loader and MaLiLib, matched to your Minecraft version. Fabric API is not needed for Litematica itself, though some third-party extensions ask for it separately.

Litematica loads but nothing happens when I press M — why?

Another mod probably uses the M key, or your keyboard layout moved it: on AZERTY keyboards the menu key is the comma key. Rebind the conflicting mod’s key, or change Litematica’s own hotkey in its config GUI (M + C).

Next Steps

Once the mod runs again, the how to use Litematica guide walks through a complete first build, and the troubleshooting hub collects every fix on this site in one place.