How to Turn On Keep Inventory in Minecraft Bedrock
Dying in Minecraft is annoying. Dying in Minecraft and losing a full inventory of diamonds, netherite tools, and that Mending book you just got from a villager? That's the kind of thing that makes people quit for a week. Keep inventory prevents that.
The Command
Open chat and type:
/gamerule keepinventory true
That's it. From now on, when you die, all your items and XP stay with you. You'll respawn with everything in your inventory exactly as it was.
To turn it back off:
/gamerule keepinventory false
Cheats Must Be Enabled
This command only works if cheats are turned on for your world. If you haven't done that yet:
For a new world: when creating the world, toggle on Activate Cheats in the Game settings before you hit Create.
For an existing world: pause the game, go to Settings → Game, and toggle Activate Cheats on. The game will warn you that this permanently disables achievements for that world. There's no way around this on Bedrock.
If you care about achievements, think carefully before enabling cheats just for keep inventory. Once you flip that switch, it can't be undone.
What Exactly Does Keep Inventory Do?
When keepInventory is set to true:
- You keep all items in your inventory when you die
- You keep all your XP levels
- No items drop on the ground at your death location
- This applies to every player in the world, not just you
It works in every dimension: Overworld, Nether, End. Doesn't matter how you die: lava, fall damage, mob attack, the void. Your stuff stays with you.
Keep Inventory on Realms and Multiplayer
On a Realm, only the owner or players with operator permissions can run the command. Once enabled, it applies to all players on the Realm, not per-player. You can't have some players keeping inventory while others don't.
The setting persists even if you log out. It stays on until someone explicitly turns it off with /gamerule keepinventory false.
Checking the Current Setting
Not sure if keep inventory is on or off? Type:
/gamerule keepinventory
The game will display the current value: true or false. Useful if you're joining a Realm or world someone else set up and want to know before you do anything risky.
Common Questions
"Can I enable keep inventory without enabling cheats?" No. On Bedrock, there's no other way. Some education edition worlds have it as a toggle, but standard Bedrock requires the command.
"Will I still drop items if I throw them manually?" Yes. Keep inventory only prevents drops on death. If you manually drop items (Q key or long press), they'll still fall on the ground as normal.
"Does it work in Hardcore mode?" Bedrock doesn't have a native Hardcore mode, so this isn't really applicable. If you're using an addon that simulates Hardcore, keep inventory behavior depends on how that addon handles death.
