Items that cannot travel between maps: Element, tributes…

Most items travel with you between our maps of one game. A few never do, and a few change on the way. Check this list before every transfer.

An item is missing after a transfer or an ascension; Element or Element Shards cannot be uploaded; Tek items arrive with no charge.
Travel is refused: "you are carrying items which can not be transferred. drop such items and try again." — sometimes with an empty inventory and nothing equipped.
Your Specimen Implant or your skins look missing after travelling.
ASA: a transfer failed after the game auto-dropped incompatible items (fixed in 86.12), or cosmetics blocked it: in 2024 empty custom-cosmetic slots were treated as items on a server with item transfers off (Steam, 2024), and an upload timer on unlocked cosmetics prevented transfers until 1.055.017.

Most items travel with you between our maps of one game. A few never do, and a few change on the way. Check this list before every transfer.

An item is missing after a transfer or an ascension; Element or Element Shards cannot be uploaded; Tek items arrive with no charge.
Travel is refused: "you are carrying items which can not be transferred. drop such items and try again." — sometimes with an empty inventory and nothing equipped.
Your Specimen Implant or your skins look missing after travelling.
ASA: a transfer failed after the game auto-dropped incompatible items (fixed in 86.12), or cosmetics blocked it: in 2024 empty custom-cosmetic slots were treated as items on a server with item transfers off (Steam, 2024), and an upload timer on unlocked cosmetics prevented transfers until 1.055.017.

Some items never cross to another ARK (ARK Wiki, CrossARK Transfers):

Item	What happens
Element, Element Shard	Not transferable; can be converted to Element Dust "at 80% loss"
Tek items with charge	Lose their charge on transfer
Tributes	Not transferable, except Nameless Venom, Reaper Pheromone Gland and Primal Crystal
Boss heads	Not transferable, except seven trophies such as the Alpha Rex and Rockwell trophies
Inactive Specimen Implant, Homo Deus Record, Gacha Crystal, Coal, Mistletoe, Crystal Wyvern Queen Flag, Gasbags Bladder	Not transferable
Filled Fish Basket, Bee Hive	Not transferable — move the creature in a Cryopod instead
Artifact of the Lost	Disappears outside Crystal Isles

ASE also deletes Wishbones on transfer (354.4). A boss win that ends in an ascension uploads your character, so anything that cannot travel is lost then too (ARK Wiki, Ascension).

A hidden item can also block a transfer: on another server it was an item left by creative mode (Steam, 2018). Items picked up in the last seconds before a world save, or items from a mod the destination lacks, can fail to arrive (Steam, 2020). Our ASE maps run no mods. On ASA, verify that the destination currently supports the item's mod; do not assume every map has an identical list.

Two mods on our ASA maps, Alfa Stack and Vanilla with Sprinkles, offer ways for Element to travel, but each is a server option — ask an admin whether either is switched on.

Before you travel, leave items that cannot travel in storage on the current map. Release fish from a Fish Basket and carry them in Cryopods; for a Giant Queen Bee, pod the bee instead of moving the hive (ARK Wiki).
Convert Element to Element Dust only if you accept the 80 % loss.
Travel refused with an empty-looking inventory: put Element, Shards, trophies, tributes and Artifacts into storage and try again. If it still refuses, ask an admin: one player cleared it with a Mindwipe Tonic, and on another server a hidden item had to be removed by an admin (Steam, 2018).
Implant or skins missing after a transfer: for one player, respawning brought them back (Steam, 2018). If you try it, store everything you carry first.
Do not transfer right after picking items up (Steam, 2020).
ASA: keep your game updated; the auto-drop and cosmetic upload-timer bugs were patched (86.12; 1.055.017).

When a transfer stays refused with nothing left to store, or an item vanished that is not on the list. An admin can check that the destination runs the same mods, tell you whether a travelling-Element option is on, and read an older save with Restore from backup if a fault — not a transfer rule — removed the item. Items lost to a transfer rule are game behaviour; whether anything is replaced is the owner's decision.

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.

Check the list before every transfer: the rule is per item and applies on every map (ARK Wiki).
Before a boss fight that ends in an ascension, take items that cannot travel out of your inventory; the wiki suggests storing them in a tame during the final countdown (ARK Wiki, Ascension).

Items that cannot travel between maps: Element, tributes, trophies, Tek charge — and 'carrying items which can not be transferred'

What you see

Related guides

Items that cannot travel between maps: Element, tributes, trophies, Tek charge — and 'carrying items which can not be transferred'

What you see

Related guides

Why it happens

What you can do

When to ask an admin

Avoid it next time

Sources