Items despawning????

[Doctor Diagnosis]

I keep items stored in wooden crates in my base and leave some out in the vicinity. I leave for a loot run and when I get back some items are missing from the vicinity but some aren't. Also had a crate full of ammo simply disappear on me :/ Also my 4 garden plots all consisting of tomatoes have disappeared on me. Logged off then back on about 7 hours later and they were gone. Like they were never there. I have ruled out the possibility of these things being stolen due to lack of access to my base plus a logical thought process. Anybody have anything to say about this?

[EokaSteve]

same things happend to me. likely an error in the games storage code, the game simply forgot that those items were there.

[_KC76_]

All items in the game have Spawn/Despawn Timers .. Timers range from 1800 seconds to 28800 seconds (half-hour to 8 hours) .. Items left in the "Vicinity" are more likely to despawn, as the game does not see them as "owned" .. Same goes for Crates and Barrels that YOU did not place, as you did not own the Crate or Barrel .. All World Objects will despawn or Reset after a period of time, so your best option is to keep what you need on you, or craft your own containers.

Disclaimer: I am still learning how the game-code works, so I may not be 100% correct on how "ownership" works.

[Alexander The Great]

vicinity items despawn
they have timers that start ticking
about 4 hours per item

12 hours per backpack on the floor

dont forget to PLACE your crate, rather than dropping it
every item you put into the game, aka place in building mode, counts as persistence and stays for extra amount of days

u must interact with it, aka move items and touch it once a week at least

[Topher]

Items persist if inside inventories that persist like backpacks to crates etc. Those persistant inventories also have vary limits from 8 hours or so to 8 days to 43 days if a flagpole has been raised beside them. Items on the ground not on their spawned location that are not inside a persisiting inventory eg. a backpack will despawn very quickly. eg. a Ifected body with no player nearby despawns in aroudn 8 minutes. A player body and all it´s worn items will despawn in around 40 monutes to an hour, however if that dying player manages to drop their clothing weapons etc. and backpack just before they die then these items will persisit for up to 8 hours even thoough the body will be cleared from the server in a few minutes without players nearby