Here’s How Long It Takes for Items to Despawn in Minecraft (& How to Disable It)

The despawning mechanic in Minecraft means that every mob, item, or unplaced object disappears after a limited period of time. It can happen at a certain time or under certain conditions.

Do items despawn in Minecraft if you leave the world?

All items dropped by solo players will despawn as soon as the player quits the game. However, in multiplayer, items disappear once the server host leaves. If you are the host and leave the world, all activity stops. As soon as you return, everything will be exactly the same. Since your items are dropped, they will despawn the same way they would if you never left the world.

All items are despawned if you die in the game. If you can’t collect them within 5 minutes after respawning, you’ll have to start over from scratch. Fire and lava, however, will make all items disappear immediately when you die because of them.

On the bright side, chests allow you to store items and prevent them from being lost. Items stored in a chest are kept safe from falling as they are stored in one place.

How long does it take for your stuff to despawn in Minecraft?

After 6,000 game ticks or 5 minutes of being loaded in chunks, stuff begins to despawn. The item with the most remaining time is counted when two items stack merge. When a chunk is unloaded, the five-minute timer is paused.

Before the despawn timer gets to zero, you can pick up all your items. If not succeeded, then items are gone forever, and you need to start over again to get them. And I know this is frustrating as hell…!!!

Although the game is exciting when it has challenging aspects, losing all the inventory and starting over again gets under the skin of many, even to the extent that may compel you to smash the screen. Fortunately, there’s a way to store all your items in inventory and restore them after you are alive again.

Death means the loss of all the possessions such as armor, weapons, and tools. But, by customization of some settings in the game, you can save all your items and again get them back in the next life. A few useful edits allow you to change core game features. Many cheat codes are available for Minecraft, and some are powerful enough to change the core variables of the game. Here are a few tricks to avoid your items despawning

Avoid despawning by using the ‘disable item despawn’ command

1. Open chat window.
2. Type “/gamerule keepinventory true”.
3. Press “enter”.
4. After you die, you’ll still have all your tools.
5. Click “respawn,” and the game starts.

Do items despawn if the chunk isn’t loaded?

Items don’t despawn if the chunk isn’t loaded. In unloaded chunks, they remain in frozen condition for an indefinite time. Items in the loaded chunks that are on the ground disappear after 5 minutes. Mostly, it depends on the rendering setting of the game.

Suppose you die while playing in a single-player setting and respawn at a faraway distance from your place of death. Then you have time to travel there, but as soon as you are within 200 blocks, the clock starts ticking, and retrieval of items should be done quickly.

If the distance where you respawned was fairly near to the place of death, then chunks never unloaded, and items would be respawned before I could write this paragraph. It is even worse on the server because any other player wandering in that area will keep the chunk loaded and the despawn clock running.

In cases when you are the host, and you exit the world, everything will pause. Upon returning to the game world, everything will be the same as you left, and it will despawn the same way if you had never left the world.

One important detail often overlooked by players is that items visually disappear when the player is 16 blocks away from them. This doesn’t mean the item is despawned; it simply vanishes when you’re far from it. Once you re-enter the Entity Distance range, the items will reappear. You can adjust the Entity Distance in the video settings—it determines the range at which you can see items and other elements in the game. Increasing it allows for a broader view.

How do you stop items from despawning in Minecraft?

Besides the aforementioned cheat to stop your items from despawning there are other ways to avoid losing your stuff and don’t necessarily require you to cheat, only that you break the game mechanics. Here are several ways to stop items from despawning:

1. Set Item Age with Command Block: To stop specific items from despawning, set their age to -32768 with a command block unless they are picked up and dropped again.)
2. Add arbitrary custom NBT Data: Add arbitrary custom NBT data to an item, which will be preserved across drop-and-pickup cycles.
3. Use ice and water for transportation: Ice and water can transport items far enough away to unload chunks, preventing them from despawning.
4. Put Items in a picture frame: Prevent items from despawning by putting them in a picture frame.
5. Store items in a chest: If you want to ensure items don’t despawn, store them in a chest. Additionally, when certain of your death, it’s advised to store all your items in a chest.

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