Pressed ESC while in map to go AFK. 5 min. later, I'm logged out & I lost my map.

Was in a map & while in map, I hit ESC to pause to go AFK. 5 min. later it logged me out & I lost my map.

Is this normal?

Because...I hit ESC, to go AFK for like 5 minutes. Shouldn't I return to it without it having logged me out. I literally zoned in and started it and then paused it to go AFK.

Bump.

While we can't be sure, you were presumably disconnected from the instance server. This is a reality of playing on POE2 servers and has been more of an issue of late for some.

It would mean that you were kicked out to the login screen because your client lost its connection to the instance server, i.e. due to an abnormal event. Normally you can sit paused for an extended period of time without issue. The game will flag you as AFK after about 15 minutes of inactivity.


It might not be the game servers. You might also have run into instability somewhere else in the network connection between you and the servers, possibly due to routing between your internet provider and GGG's server. Your regional servers also need to be able to exchange information regularly with the central game servers/database in Texas.


If your map was gone when you logged back in (and you did so after a short amount of time like the 5 minutes you mentioned), the server likely crashed and lost your instance data. My server crashed multiple times last Thursday morning (other regions also appeared to be affected). As a player, you usually don't see much more than a message saying either:

"

An unexpected disconnect occurred.

or

"

Game server lost contact with the realm.

If you try to re-enter an area that has been lost due to a crash, you may get a message saying:

"

Failed to join any instances.

You may find more information or error messages that you missed by checking the Client.txt log file in the log directory of your game install (if you are on PC).



It is possible that changes made to your character, including new items picked up to inventory, might be rolled back if the instance crashed before you changed areas.


While disconnects also occur for POE1 and can be frustrating, we might expect that they will happen more often during POE2's development. They have certainly been commonly reported by many players in addition to yourself. GGG works to identify and resolve common scenarios leading to crashes, particularly with new changes, but it remains something we will deal with as POE2 players.

I didn't get any of those messages. Where do I check in the Client.txt file to see if I can find any information on what disconnected me?

Edit: Thank you in advance.

In your Path of Exile client install directory (on PC), there is a folder named "logs".

e.g., for the standalone client this might be something like
D:\Path of Exile 2\logs\
or wherever you installed the game

For Steam, it is probably inside the game folder within your Steam Library folder(s) [I don't have it installed this way to verify at the moment, but possibly something like this]:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Path of Exile 2\logs\


Inside this directory is a text file named Client.txt, which you could open in a text editor to view the logged messages.


This file will likely be very long, as it continuously appends new information at the end of the existing file and may add a great deal of information for each play session. You would be able to find the appropriate time range for your issue by looking at / searching on the date and timestamp that will be recorded for every line added to the log. You will note that there are entries that identify the IP address of the servers you are connecting to.

You could also search for words like "Abnormal disconnect" or the name of the town you last entered (e.g. search upward from the beginning of the file, assuming your text reader will loop around to the end of the file to continue searching, which Notepad in Windows 11 will do).

Additionally, any chat you receive and send in game will also be recorded in this log. If you miss something while logging out and back into the game, you can look for it here.

It is likely that the disconnect message did appear on your login screen after you were disconnected, but that it timed out and disappeared from view before you returned.