Minecraft Ice Not Dropping? Here's Why (And How to Collect It)

Ice, packed ice and blue ice drop nothing unless your tool is enchanted with Silk Touch — and frosted ice drops nothing even with Silk Touch. That's the whole mystery in one sentence (wiki: Silk Touch table). If your diamond pickaxe isn't producing ice, the enchantment — not the tool tier — is what's missing. This page is the fix-it guide: which ice drops what, why broken ice sometimes becomes water (or vanishes), and a checklist for the rare case where you have Silk Touch and still get nothing.

The drop table: every ice block, every outcome

Block	Bare hand / normal tool	Silk Touch	What happens to the block
Ice	Nothing	Ice	Becomes a water source if a solid block or fluid is directly below; otherwise just disappears (wiki: Ice)
Packed ice	Nothing	Packed ice	Block is gone, no water, ever
Blue ice	Nothing	Blue ice	Block is gone, no water (wiki: Silk Touch)
Frosted ice	Nothing	Still nothing	Becomes water like regular ice (wiki: Frosted Ice)
Packed ice bricks (test builds)	Drops itself	Drops itself	Always drops — the one ice that needs no enchantment (wiki: Packed Ice Bricks)
Brittle ice (test builds)	Nothing	Brittle ice	Breaks without water (wiki: Brittle Ice)

Why your diamond pickaxe isn't enough

Tool tier speeds up breaking; the Silk Touch enchantment decides whether anything drops. That's why a netherite pickaxe without Silk Touch mines ice at full speed and yields exactly zero ice. Two enchantments people reach for that won't help:

• Fortune — the wiki documents no Fortune interaction for ice. It multiplies drops of certain ores and crops; ice isn't one of them. There is no way to get "more ice per block" — one block, one item, Silk Touch only.
• Any specific tool type or material — any tool with Silk Touch works (pickaxe, shovel, axe, hoe). The pickaxe is just fastest on ice blocks.

Getting Silk Touch: enchant a pickaxe at an enchanting table (Silk Touch appears anywhere in the table's options), find it in enchanted-book loot or trading with librarian villagers, or fish one up. Then mine ice, packed ice or blue ice to collect it.

Why ice turns into water — or vanishes completely

When you break regular ice without Silk Touch, the outcome depends on what's underneath:

1. Solid block or any fluid directly below → the ice becomes a water source block. This is a feature: players use it to place water precisely (wiki: Ice). 2. Nothing (air) below → the ice breaks into nothing. No water, no drop. 3. In the Nether → always nothing. Ice broken or melted in the Nether produces no water at all (wiki: Ice).

Melted ice follows the same rules — a melting ice block leaves water where it stood, unless it's in the Nether.

The "I have Silk Touch and still no drop" checklist

Work through it top to bottom; the cause is usually in the first three:

1. Is it frosted ice? The crackling, fractured-looking ice from Frost Walker boots drops nothing with any tool, including Silk Touch (wiki: Frosted Ice). You can't collect it in survival — full explanation on the frosted ice page. 2. Which tool slot is actually enchanted? Off-hand vs main-hand mixups, or holding a different (unenchantable) item, are the classic silent failures. 3. Java or Bedrock — and is the enchantment really on it? Check the item tooltip in your inventory. If you enchanted books, remember to combine book + tool at an anvil; the table isn't the last step. 4. A server plugin or gamerule interfering? Some servers modify drops (item-drop disabling, custom plugins, or mobGriefing-adjacent protections). Test in a single-player world to isolate. 5. Adventure mode? In adventure mode you may not be able to break blocks at all — check your game mode. 6. Creative mode? In creative, broken blocks simply vanish by design — nothing "drops" there. 7. Mods or data packs on a video you copied? If a tutorial shows ice dropping without Silk Touch (except the new bricks in test builds), it's modded gameplay.

Collecting ice the easy way (survival steps)

1. Enchant any pickaxe with Silk Touch (table, anvil + book, villager trade, or loot). 2. Travel to a frozen ocean, ice spikes biome or frozen river — ice is everywhere on the surface there. 3. Mine the ice with the enchanted pickaxe. Walk away with the blocks; no water if you break from the edge downward. 4. Need more than the surface offers? In a snowy biome, expose a dark water pool to the sky and let it freeze, then harvest — repeatable forever (ice farming tutorial).

FAQ

Does Fortune give more ice?

No. Fortune has no documented effect on any ice block; Silk Touch is the only enchantment that produces a drop.

Why did my ice disappear without leaving water?

Nothing solid or fluid was directly beneath it, or you broke it in the Nether. Both are normal behaviour (wiki: Ice).

Why won't Silk Touch pick up frosted ice?

Frosted ice is not obtainable as an item in survival on any edition — Silk Touch drops nothing on it. Bedrock players can hold it via /give; Java players via /setblock. Details: Frosted Ice.

Do I need Silk Touch for packed ice bricks?

No — they always drop themselves when mined, with a pickaxe or bare hands. That's unique to the bricks set (currently in test builds only). ---

Sources & related guides