Pocket Storage Mod Guide: Tiered Mass Item Storage for Minecraft
Pocket Storage adds portable mass item storage to Minecraft through four tiers of Pocket Storage Units. Each tier dramatically increases both slot count and per-slot capacity, letting you carry thousands or even millions of items in a single inventory item. It requires no other mods and works right out of the box.
Overview
Pocket Storage is a straightforward storage mod that adds four tiers of Pocket Storage Units (PSUs) to the game. Each PSU is a single item that sits in your inventory and holds a massive number of items inside it. Think of it like a portable Chest on steroids, scaling from 8 slots at Tier 1 all the way up to 64 slots at Tier 4, with per-slot capacities reaching over one million items.
The mod has zero dependencies and is designed to solve one problem: your inventory filling up with Cobblestone, Dirt, and other bulk materials while mining or exploring. PSUs automatically absorb matching items as you pick them up, can dump their contents into Chests and other containers, and can pull items back out with a simple sneak-click. You can browse all items and recipes this mod adds using the tabs at the top of this page.
Getting Started
- 1
Craft Your First PSU
The Tier 1 PSU requires Iron Ingots, Pistons, Redstone Dust, and a Chest. Arrange them in a Crafting Table with Iron Ingots in the corners, Pistons on the top and bottom middle, Redstone Dust on the left and right middle, and a Chest in the center. This gives you a PSU with 8 slots, each holding up to 255 items.
- 2
Open the PSU Interface
Right-click while holding your PSU to open its storage interface. You'll see the PSU's slots at the top and your regular inventory at the bottom. Click items in your inventory to place them into PSU slots, or click PSU slots to extract items. Right-click places a single item, and Ctrl-click extracts one item at a time. Shift-click sends extracted items directly to your inventory.
- 3
Let Auto-Pickup Do the Work
With a PSU in your inventory (any slot works, including your hotbar), any items you pick up that match items already stored in the PSU will automatically be routed into it. If your PSU already contains Cobblestone and you walk over more Cobblestone on the ground, it goes straight into the PSU without cluttering your inventory. This only works for item types already present in the PSU, so place at least one of each material you want to auto-collect.
- 4
Interact With Containers
Sneak and right-click on any container (Chest, Barrel, Hopper, or any block with an item handler) while holding your PSU to deposit its contents into that container. Sneak and left-click on a container to pull matching items from the container back into the PSU. This makes it incredibly fast to unload bulk materials into your storage system.
- 5
Upgrade When Ready
When you outgrow your Tier 1 PSU, craft the next tier by placing your current PSU in the center of a new recipe. Upgrades preserve all stored data, so you never lose your items. Work your way from Iron to Gold to Diamond to Nether Star materials as your storage needs grow.
The upgrade crafting recipe uses a special "Copy Data" system. When you craft a higher-tier PSU using your current one as an ingredient, all stored items and the PSU's unique identity are transferred to the new unit. You will never lose items by upgrading.
PSU Tiers and Progression
Pocket Storage follows a simple four-tier progression tied to vanilla Minecraft materials. Each tier quadruples the previous tier's capacity while doubling the number of available slots. The Tier 1 PSU is accessible as soon as you have Iron, Redstone, and Pistons, making it an early-game craft. Tier 2 requires Gold Ingots and upgrades your Tier 1 unit. Tier 3 jumps to Diamonds, and the final Tier 4 demands Nether Stars, placing it firmly in late-game territory.
Each PSU can only stack to 1, so you cannot carry multiples in the same slot. However, you can carry multiple PSUs in different inventory slots, and the auto-pickup system will check all of them. Items with NBT data (enchanted items, named items, etc.) cannot be stored in PSUs, and you cannot store a PSU inside another PSU.
PSU Tier Comparison
| Tier 1 (Common) | Tier 2 (Uncommon) | Tier 3 (Rare) | Tier 4 (Epic) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slots | 8 | 16 | 32 | 64 |
| Items Per Slot | 255 | 4,095 | 65,535 | 1,048,575 |
| Total Capacity | 2,040 | 65,520 | 2,097,120 | 67,108,800 |
| Key Material | Iron Ingots | Gold Ingots | Diamonds | Nether Stars |
| Rarity Color | White | Yellow | Aqua | Purple |
Crafting Recipes
All four PSU tiers follow the same 3x3 crafting pattern: the key material in the corners (or sides), Pistons on the top and bottom, and a Chest (or Chests) filling in the remaining spots. Tier 1 is a fresh craft, while Tiers 2 through 4 are upgrades that require the previous tier's PSU in the center slot. See the Recipes tab for the full visual breakdown of each recipe.
PSU Recipes
The Tier 4 PSU requires two Nether Stars, which means defeating the Wither at least twice. On multiplayer servers, plan ahead and stockpile Wither Skeleton Skulls. The jump from Tier 3 (2 million total capacity) to Tier 4 (67 million total capacity) is enormous, so it is absolutely worth the effort for large-scale projects.
Container Interactions
One of the most useful features of Pocket Storage is how PSUs interact with other containers in the world. While holding a PSU, you can sneak and right-click on any block that has item storage capability (Chests, Barrels, Hoppers, Shulker Boxes, and modded storage blocks) to deposit items from the PSU into that container. The PSU pushes out items one at a time from each slot, leaving one item behind in the slot so the slot type is preserved for auto-pickup.
Conversely, sneak and left-click on a container to pull items back into your PSU. Only items that already have a matching slot in the PSU will be pulled. This means you can selectively retrieve specific materials from a Chest without grabbing everything. There is a one-second cooldown on the left-click interaction to prevent accidental repeated pulls.
Automation Compatibility
PSUs expose the Forge item handler capability, which means modded pipes, Hoppers, and item transfer systems can interact with a PSU. If you place a PSU in a modded inventory slot or use a system that can access item handlers on ItemStacks, automated item routing into and out of PSUs is possible.
Admin Commands
Pocket Storage includes a set of server commands available to operators (permission level 1+). These are invaluable for server administrators managing player storage or recovering lost items. All commands are available under both /pocketstorage and the shorter alias /ps.
/ps list
Lists all PSU storage units on the server, showing each unit's truncated UUID, who created it, when it was first opened, and who last accessed it. You can filter by player name using /ps list firstOpenedBy <name> or /ps list lastOpenedBy <name> to narrow results on busy servers.
/ps open <UUID>
Opens any PSU's storage interface directly, even if you don't have the physical item. Useful for inspecting the contents of a specific unit. The command supports tab-completion for UUIDs.
/ps recover <UUID>
Creates a new physical PSU item linked to an existing storage UUID and gives it to the player running the command. This is the recovery tool for when a player loses their PSU to lava, the void, or a bug. The recovered item connects to the same storage data, so all items inside are preserved.
If you accidentally destroy your PSU, ask a server operator to run /ps list to find your unit's UUID, then /ps recover <UUID> to get a replacement. Your stored items are saved server-side, not on the item itself, so losing the physical PSU does not mean losing your items.
How Storage Works Internally
Understanding how PSU storage works behind the scenes can help you avoid confusion. Each PSU item has a unique UUID assigned to it the first time it is used. The actual item data is stored server-side in a central StorageManager, not inside the item's NBT. The PSU item is essentially just a key that points to the real inventory data on the server. This design means that even if the item is destroyed, the data persists on the server until the world is reset.
When you upgrade a PSU through crafting, the recipe system copies the UUID from the old PSU to the new one and then expands the storage capacity. The old slots and their contents are preserved, and new empty slots are added. The slot capacity limit also increases to match the new tier.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I store a PSU inside another PSU?
No. The mod explicitly blocks PocketStorageUnit items from being placed into PSU slots. This prevents infinite storage loops and potential data corruption.
What happens if I die with a PSU in my inventory?
The PSU item drops like any other item. If you recover the item, all your stored items are still there because the data is stored server-side. If the dropped item despawns or falls into lava, a server admin can recover it using /ps recover with your UUID.
Does auto-pickup work with items I've never stored before?
No. Auto-pickup only routes items into the PSU if there is already a matching item type in one of the PSU's slots. You need to manually place at least one of each item type you want auto-collected. Empty slots are ignored by the pickup system.
Can I use PSUs with modded pipes and item transfer systems?
Yes. PSUs expose the Forge IItemHandler capability, which is the standard interface for modded item interaction. Any mod that uses this capability (most tech mods) should be able to insert into and extract from a PSU.
Why can't I move my PSU while the GUI is open?
The mod locks the inventory slot containing the currently-open PSU to prevent you from accidentally moving or dropping it while managing its contents. This is intentional and protects against item duplication bugs.
Do recipes unlock automatically?
Yes. Pocket Storage includes an automatic recipe unlocker that grants all of the mod's recipes to every player when they log in. You do not need to discover any items first to see the recipes in the recipe book.