Dealing with a Roblox Studio starter gui reset on spawn issue is one of those small hurdles that every developer hits eventually. You've spent hours perfecting a shop menu or a sleek inventory system, but as soon as a player trips over a lava brick or gets tagged in a combat game, the whole thing vanishes or resets to its default state. It feels like a bug, but in reality, it's just the default behavior of how Roblox handles user interfaces.
If you're seeing your menus pop back up every time you respawn, or if you're losing progress in a GUI-based system because the player died, don't worry—it's actually a really quick fix once you know where to look.
Why Does the GUI Keep Resetting?
To understand how to stop this, you have to understand what Roblox is doing behind the scenes. When you place things in the StarterGui folder in the Explorer window, they aren't actually staying there when the game runs. Think of StarterGui as a template or a "blueprint" folder.
When a player joins the game, Roblox takes everything inside StarterGui and clones it into a folder called PlayerGui, which lives inside that specific player's object under the "Players" service. By default, every time that player's character respawns (after dying or manually resetting), Roblox goes back to that "blueprint" in StarterGui and clones a fresh copy into the PlayerGui. It wipes the old stuff and replaces it with the original version.
This is actually pretty helpful for things like health bars or temporary status effects that should reset when you die. However, for things like a main menu, an XP bar, or a custom inventory, it's a massive headache.
The Magic Property: ResetOnSpawn
The solution to most of your problems lies in a single checkbox. If you look at any ScreenGui object inside your StarterGui, you'll see a list of properties in the Properties window. One of those is titled ResetOnSpawn.
By default, this box is checked. If you want your GUI to stay exactly as it is when a player dies, all you have to do is uncheck it. It sounds simple, but there are a few nuances to keep in mind:
- Select the ScreenGui: Make sure you're clicking on the actual ScreenGui object, not the frames or buttons inside it. The property only exists at the top level of the GUI container.
- Uncheck the box: Once you turn it off, that specific GUI won't be refreshed when the character re-enters the world.
- Check for nested GUIs: If you have multiple ScreenGuis for different parts of your game (which you definitely should for organization), you'll need to check this property for each one individually.
When Should You Leave It On?
You might be tempted to just turn off ResetOnSpawn for every single GUI in your game, but that can lead to some weird behavior. For example, if you have a "You Died" screen that is triggered by a script when a player's health hits zero, you might want that GUI to reset so it's ready for the next time they perish.
Another example is a HUD (Heads-Up Display) that tracks specific character-based stats. If your GUI is closely tied to the specific physical character model in the game, resetting it can sometimes be the "cleaner" way to ensure everything is synced up correctly. But generally speaking, for menus and persistent UI elements, you'll want it off.
What Happens to Scripts inside the GUI?
This is a big one that catches people off guard. If your LocalScript is inside a ScreenGui that has ResetOnSpawn set to true, that script is going to stop running and restart from the beginning every time the player respawns.
This can be a nightmare if your script is handling things like remote events or background tasks. If the script restarts, it might lose its "state" (the data it was holding in variables). If you turn ResetOnSpawn off, the LocalScript stays active and keeps its data.
If you find that your UI scripts are breaking or "doubling up" after a player dies, it's almost always because of how the reset behavior interacts with your code. Keeping your main game logic outside of the ScreenGuis—maybe in StarterPlayerScripts—is a good way to avoid this entirely, but if your code must be in the UI, just make sure you've handled the reset setting properly.
Common Pitfalls and Troubleshooting
Sometimes you uncheck the box and things still don't seem right. Or maybe you want it to reset, but it isn't. Here are a few things to look out for.
The GUI Disappears Entirely
If your GUI disappears when you die and you've messed with the ResetOnSpawn setting, check to see if you have any scripts that are manually disabling the UI. Sometimes developers write "OnDeath" functions that hide the HUD, but they forget to write an "OnSpawn" function to show it again. If the GUI doesn't reset automatically, it will stay hidden forever until you tell it otherwise.
Data Not Updating
If you turn off ResetOnSpawn, remember that the GUI is now "persistent." This means if you have a label that says "Level: 1" and the player levels up to 2, the GUI will show 2. If they die and the GUI doesn't reset, it will still show 2. This is usually what you want! But if you have code that only runs when the script first starts, that code won't run again when the player respawns. You'll need to make sure your scripts are listening for changes rather than just setting values once at the start.
Layering Issues (ZIndex)
While not directly caused by the reset, sometimes when GUIs don't reset, you might notice that they overlap in weird ways with other UI elements that do reset. Keeping a consistent ZIndex (the property that determines what's on top) across all your UI elements becomes even more important when some parts of your interface are permanent and others are fresh clones.
Scripting Your Way Around It
If the checkbox isn't enough—perhaps you want the GUI to reset only under specific conditions—you can handle this through scripting. Instead of relying on the built-in Roblox behavior, you can set ResetOnSpawn to false and then use a script to manually reset the UI when the Player.CharacterAdded event fires.
This gives you total control. You could, for instance, reset the player's HUD but keep their inventory menu open exactly where they left it. It's a bit more work, but for complex games, it's often the professional way to go.
lua -- Example: A simple way to detect a respawn in a LocalScript local player = game.Players.LocalPlayer player.CharacterAdded:Connect(function(character) print("Player has respawned, I can now manually reset parts of my UI!") -- Your manual reset logic here end)
Wrapping It Up
At the end of the day, the roblox studio starter gui reset on spawn setting is just one of those "know-how" things. It's not that the system is broken; it's just that Roblox defaults to a "fresh start" mentality every time a character hits the ground.
For most of your projects, simply going into the ScreenGui properties and toggling that one checkbox will solve 90% of your UI frustrations. It keeps your menus open, your scripts running smoothly, and your players from getting annoyed that they have to navigate back to the shop menu every time they take a tumble.
Just keep an eye on how your scripts behave once you change it, and you'll be well on your way to a much more polished user experience. Happy developing!