JEI Crash: recipeCategories must not be empty

What the log looks like

java\.lang\.IllegalArgumentException: recipeCategories must not be empty\.
mezz\.jei\.util\.ErrorUtil\.checkNotEmpty\(ErrorUtil\.java:\d+\)\s+at mezz\.jei\.gui\.ingredients\.IngredientLookupState\.<init>

How to fix it

1. Update Just Enough Items (JEI) to the latest version available for your exact Minecraft version, as older 1.12.2 and 1.19.4 builds had startup timing bugs.
2. If you have Not Enough Items (NEI) and CodeChickenLib installed alongside JEI, remove NEI and CodeChickenLib unless your modpack specifically requires them, or update NEI to a build compatible with your JEI version.
3. If you are playing Minecraft 1.12.2 with LiteLoader installed alongside Forge, update JEI to version 4.15.0 or newer to prevent LiteLoader's early resource refresh from starting JEI before recipes exist.
4. Delete the `config/jei` folder (or `jei-client.toml` in `config/`) so JEI regenerates its category visibility settings from scratch.
5. If the crash happens when opening your inventory on a 1.19+ world or server, check `logs/latest.log` for datapack or recipe script errors (such as KubeJS or CraftTweaker) that prevented server recipes from syncing to your client.

Check your own log