In Minecraft, how can you stop items from disappearing?

Question

I'm dying pretty recently in Minecraft, and I always have fear that my items will go to waste. I found out at this question that you're able to last with your items 5 minutes before they go away. Five minutes!! That's not a lot, so I want to know if it's possible to extend the amount of time you have, and if it is possible, what are all the ways you can do so?

Note that I don't want any command blocks, and I'm playing in a Survival world.

Answer 1

In short, you can't, except for circumstances which are difficult or impractical to engineer deliberately. Items dropped on the ground will always vanish after five minutes, subject to the following exceptions:

• Dropped items can be collected by a hopper or by some mobs. Once a mob has picked up anything, it is no longer capable of despawning. But if you have enough time and wherewithal to set either of these things up, then you probably aren't going to die in the first place.
• The five-minute timer does not run when the chunk (where the item was dropped) is unloaded, and as a result it will not run if you are not in the same dimension as the item, or far enough away (but on multiplayer, other players could cause chunks to load even if you do not).
• As explained in other answers, there is a command to disable dropping items, but it does not work when playing in survival with cheats disabled, so I assume that you are not interested in using it.

My advice:

• Try to die less often. Make and equip a shield. Make and equip iron or better armor and a weapon (axe or sword, usually). Avoid digging straight up or straight down, and exercise appropriate prudence when exploring underground or in other dangerous areas. Don't go raiding a Woodland Mansion or other dangerous structures until you are reasonably confident that you can survive it.
• If you are playing over a large area, make and use beds frequently in the Overworld (they do not work in other dimensions). Try to ensure that you will always respawn near your place of death. If you're in the nether, use respawn anchors when given the chance.
• If you die in the Nether and respawn in the Overworld, do not immediately return to the Nether. Gather equipment and resources first, since the timer is not running.
• Don't carry any item which you are unlikely to need for your current activity. If you're mining, you don't need a hoe. If you're exploring aboveground, a pickaxe is probably necessary... but does it really need to be your diamond pickaxe? And so on. Put everything that you don't strictly need in a container (barrel or chest) in your base.
• Collect as many materials as possible, even if you already have an adequate supply. Mined materials such as coal or iron can usually be crafted into blocks for compact storage, as can wheat. Inevitably, you're going to lose some valuable items at some point, so prepare for this by collecting enough extra stuff to make up for it.
• Use materials prudently. You probably don't need to make a diamond hoe, or even a diamond shovel. Most tools are just fine if you make them out of iron, or even stone. If most of your equipment is iron or stone, you will fear the loss of your diamond equipment less, since fewer diamonds will have gone into it, and you will have more in storage.

Answer 2

You can use "/gamerule keepInventory true". But that requires cheats to be turned on.

So if you mean no cheats by commandblocks, that's out.

I myself would just enjoy the minecraft experience and learn from my mistakes. If I die once I won't die same way again.

Answer 3

Vanilla Tweaks has a data pack called 'Graves' that stores your items upon death.

I've installed it but haven't needed it!

Answer 4

Items only despawn in loaded chunks (those being the chunks around the world spawn, a chunk or so radius around your Nether and End portals, and areas that are actively on your render distance at a given time).

If you died a far distance away, and the area that you died in isn't in a loaded chunk, then your items can last indefinitely until you load in the chunks with the items in it again; in which case the 5 minute despawn timer will resume.

Answer 5

You didn't mention whether you're playing single player, so this might or might not be an option. But in case it is:

There are mods, such as "deathchest", which will put your items into a chest or similar object when you die. This prevents them from despawning (as they aren't loose items). If you're playing single player or can talk to whoever admins your world, it might be worth looking into such mods.

(note: I haven't played minecraft in quite a while, not sure which if any such mods are up to date)

Answer 6

If you don't load the chunk that you died in, the timer won't change. My best advice is to get as far away from your death spot as possible until you are ready to reclaim it.