How to AFK in Minecraft without getting disconnected

When playing Minecraft in a multiplayer setting, it's a good idea to keep moving and stay active. This is due to the functionality of most servers that will kick players and forcefully disconnect them to free up space for other players.

This can be somewhat irritating to deal with, as being AFK for a certain amount of time can result in a player needing to log back into a server. However, there are a few tricks that Minecraft fans can employ to remain connected to their server. It should be noted that certain tricks won't work on some servers, as the plugins utilized server-side can often overcome them.

Regardless, one trick is fairly easy to implement in Minecraft and requires just a few blocks and some water.

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Creating an AFK Pool in Minecraft 1.19+ to avoid disconnection

While there are several different ways to attempt getting AFK kicked in Minecraft, using a circling pool or "AFK slide" is a particularly cost-effective way to do so. By using this small structure, players can float through the water endlessly, which should trick the server into thinking that the player is swimming and keep them from being kicked due to inactivity. Granted, some servers have accounted for this trick and have tweaked their plugins to keep it from working, but it should operate well enough on vanilla or vanilla-lite servers.

The only way to know for certain if this tactic will work is to give it a shot. Fortunately, Minecraft players won't need too many blocks to create this pool, and with a bucket of water or two, fans can place this pool just about anywhere and hop in to avoid being disconnected.

Creating an endless circling pool in Minecraft

1. Collect 13 building blocks of your preference as well as one slab and a sign. These can be made of any material you'd like.
2. Begin by creating an exterior wall of three blocks on each side. There should be a 3x3 block space within the walls. The walls themselves should begin one block high.
3. In the center of the 3x3 area within the walls, place one block in the center.
4. Select a corner you'd like to start the pool with. Place additional blocks on one of the walls so that two of the three blocks on the wall are two blocks high.
5. In the same corner you placed the two-block-high walls, place a slab in the adjacent corner. This slab should be within the 3x3 area inside the wall.
6. Take a water bucket and place water against the two-block-high wall closest to the corner. The water should flow downward and over the slab while circulating around the block you placed in Step 3.
7. Next to where you placed the water, place a sign block on the adjacent two-block-high wall. This will ensure that you stay on course as you ride over the water.

A basic example of the AFK water pool when functional (Image via Mojang)

To use this pool, all a Minecraft player needs to do is hop into the water. It should carry them along the current and keep them moving in a slow, lazy river-style rotation. However, it should be noted that if players get stuck on the central block, they should be able to replace it with an additional sign if necessary to keep their character moving. As previously stated, this method won't work on every server depending on what plugins are being used, but for smaller-scale servers, this slow-moving water pool should do the trick quite effectively.

The same AFK pool without its water, displaying the block placement and slab corner necessary to ensure the water flow (Image via Mojang)

It's also worth pointing out that although this method can work on some Minecraft multiplayer servers, players may get different results within realms. Unfortunately, due to the nature of how realms and servers are run, it can be difficult to determine if this particular AFK trick will work correctly. The good news is that other AFK methods also exist, and depending on the server or realm, players should be able to utilize them if the AFK pool doesn't pan out as expected.

At the end of the day, Minecraft servers and realms are constantly being updated and re-tooled, making AFKing without getting kicked into a tricky proposition. Tricks to evade the AFK kick function are being revamped every so often, but sometimes a server administrator simply goes through strident efforts to ensure that Minecraft players get booted for being away from their keyboard.