'Died in a Cryopod': dead pods, unpowered Cryofridges, and fridges that stop working

A Cryopod is not a safe forever. It runs on a charge, and only a powered Cryofridge keeps that charge topped up.

The Tribe Log says one of your creatures died in a Cryopod; the pod is dead and the creature is gone, even after recharging.
The pod had been sitting in a box, a Refrigerator, a creature's inventory or on you for weeks.
A Cryofridge shows unpowered although it is wired, or shows powered but its contents suffer. In late 2026 ASA players reported fridges that stop working after updates, pods losing health inside a fridge, and fridges found empty after an update (open reports ASAIR-338, ASAIR-289, ASAIR-288).

A Cryopod is not a safe forever. It runs on a charge, and only a powered Cryofridge keeps that charge topped up.

The Tribe Log says one of your creatures died in a Cryopod; the pod is dead and the creature is gone, even after recharging.
The pod had been sitting in a box, a Refrigerator, a creature's inventory or on you for weeks.
A Cryofridge shows unpowered although it is wired, or shows powered but its contents suffer. In late 2026 ASA players reported fridges that stop working after updates, pods losing health inside a fridge, and fridges found empty after an update (open reports ASAIR-338, ASAIR-289, ASAIR-288).

A Cryopod discharges from the moment it is made. The ARK Wiki's figures, written for ASE:

Where the pod is	Lasts about
Your inventory, a creature's inventory, a Preserving Bin	30 days
A Refrigerator	60 days
A powered Cryofridge	indefinitely, while it stays powered

"When the Cryopod goes dead any creature inside the Cryopod will die and disappear forever", even if the pod is recharged later, and the death is noted in the Tribe Log (ARK Wiki). A Cryofridge works out the charge when it is opened, so a fridge left unpowered and not opened for more than 30 days holds dead creatures; the wiki recommends making sure a fridge is powered before opening it. Players go further and report that opening a Cryofridge while it has no power can kill every pod inside (official forum, 2021; Steam, 2024) — a player report, not a patch note.

A fridge loses power when it is out of reach of its outlet (Steam, 2018); on other servers decayed cables also cut it, but on our maps every decay has been off since 18/09/2026. ASA fixed a Cryofridge power state that did not update until the fridge was opened (64.11). The late-2026 ASA reports have no official answer yet.

On our ASA maps, a creature stored in a Dino Depot Dinoball (a mod item) has no charge timer; a vanilla Cryopod does.

Keep pods in a powered Cryofridge. Look through old pods in boxes, Refrigerators and creature inventories and move them now.
Never open a Cryofridge while it is unpowered — restore the power first.
Give fridges backup power, such as a generator or a wind turbine, plus charged batteries inside (official forum, 2021).
After a server restart or an update, open each Cryofridge and check that it shows powered (64.11).
Carrying many pods? Lie in a powered Tek Sleeping Pod: it charges every Cryopod in your inventory (ARK Wiki, since 312.65).
A creature that died in a pod cannot be revived by recharging the pod. Report it only if the pod was in a powered Cryofridge the whole time.

When the pod was in a powered Cryofridge the whole time, or you think a fault killed it. No command revives creatures that died in pods (Steam, 2024). An admin can look for the pod in the hourly backups: a creature that was in a pod in an earlier save can sometimes be restored, and it comes back in a vanilla Cryopod without its saddle or inventory. The save must be from before the loss — about two days back at most. Rolling back a whole map affects everyone and is the owner's decision, as is any replacement.

Tell an admin the map, the time (the clock in your profile menu shows the server's time), your character's name, what you carried or had uploaded, and the exact message on the screen. For a transfer: both maps and both times. Report the same day — the backups reach back only about two days. Contact admin is in your profile menu; the Guides page has a question box.

Here, also say where the fridge stands and when the Tribe Log line appeared.

A powered Cryofridge with backup power; never open an unpowered fridge (official forum, 2021; Steam, 2024).
Recharge the pods you carry in a powered Tek Sleeping Pod (ARK Wiki).
Never leave pods for weeks in a Refrigerator, a box or a creature's inventory (ARK Wiki).

Cryopod — ARK Wiki, CC BY-NC-SA
Cryofridge — ARK Wiki, CC BY-NC-SA
Tek Sleeping Pod — ARK Wiki, CC BY-NC-SA
Random unpowered fridges/cryofridges? (ARK Official Community Forums, 2021)
Steam (ASE): All our cryo'd tames died (2024)
Steam (ASE): Making cryopods permanent (2018)
ASAIR-338, ASAIR-289, ASAIR-288 — official ASA bug tracker, user reports
Our records: docs/OPERATIONS.md §17 (decay off), §13 and §25 (restore limits, retention); docs/SYSTEM.md §12 (Restore from backup); the Dino Depot configuration spec in our archive

'Died in a Cryopod': dead pods, unpowered Cryofridges, and fridges that stop working

What you see

Related guides

'Died in a Cryopod': dead pods, unpowered Cryofridges, and fridges that stop working

What you see

Related guides

Why it happens

What you can do

When to ask an admin

Avoid it next time

Sources