If you've been working in Studio and noticed your UI keeps vanishing or resetting to its default state every time your character dies, you're likely dealing with the roblox startergui screen gui reset on spawn property. It's one of those tiny checkboxes that can either be your best friend or the source of a massive headache depending on what kind of game you're trying to build. When you're deep in the zone, coding a complex shop system or a sleek health bar, the last thing you want is for the whole thing to wipe itself clean just because a player tripped over a kill part.
Most developers stumble upon this when they realize their menus aren't staying open after a respawn, or worse, their scripts start throwing errors because the UI they were referencing just got deleted and replaced. Understanding how this property interacts with the PlayerGui is pretty much "Roblox Dev 101," but it's surprising how often it trips up even people who have been around the block a few times.
What Does ResetOnSpawn Actually Do?
To get why this happens, we have to look at how Roblox handles UI. Everything you put in StarterGui isn't actually what the player sees. Instead, StarterGui acts like a template folder. When a player joins, or more importantly, when they spawn, Roblox takes everything inside StarterGui and clones it into the player's PlayerGui folder (which lives inside the Player object in the Explorer).
The ResetOnSpawn property, which you'll find in the Properties window for any ScreenGui object, tells Roblox: "Hey, every time this player's character loads in, should I delete the old UI and clone a fresh version from StarterGui?"
By default, this is set to true. For things like a "You Died" screen or a simple HUD, that's usually fine. But for an inventory, a quest log, or a custom leveling bar, it's a nightmare. If a player is halfway through a trade and dies, you probably don't want their trade window to just vanish into thin air.
When You Should Keep It On
Now, I'm not saying you should just uncheck it for every single GUI in your game. There are plenty of times where having it turned on is actually the easier path.
Take a basic round-based game, for example. If you have a UI that shows the current map or a "Waiting for Players" message, resetting it on spawn ensures that every time a player enters the arena, they're seeing the UI exactly how it was designed to look at the start. It clears out any weird states or leftover text from the previous life.
It's also great for cleanup. If you're a bit messy with your scripting and you find that your UI gets cluttered with temporary icons or pop-ups, letting the game wipe the slate clean when the player respawns can save you from having to write complex "reset" functions in your code. It's the "turn it off and back on again" solution of the Roblox UI world.
The Case for Turning It Off
Most modern, high-quality games on the platform tend to keep ResetOnSpawn set to false for their main HUD elements. Why? Because it feels much more professional.
Imagine you're playing an RPG. You open your character stats, you're looking at your gear, and then a monster kills you. You respawn at the graveyard, and your menu is gone. It's annoying. If you turn ResetOnSpawn off, that menu stays exactly where it was. The player's experience is seamless.
Another huge reason is performance and logic. If you have a massive LocalScript inside your UI that handles everything from data syncing to animations, you don't really want that script to die and restart every time the player falls off a ledge. If the script keeps running, it can maintain its variables and connections without needing to re-fetch data from the server or re-calculate layout positions.
The "Invisible" Problem: Character References
Here is where people usually run into trouble. Let's say you've unchecked the box. Your UI is now persistent. Great! But then you notice your health bar doesn't work anymore after the first death. Or your "Click to Teleport" button stops responding.
This happens because your LocalScript likely defined the player's character at the very top of the script, like this: local character = player.Character or player.CharacterAdded:Wait()
If ResetOnSpawn is false, the script does not restart. However, the character does change. The old character model is destroyed, and a brand new one is created. Your script is still holding onto a reference to a character that doesn't exist anymore.
To fix this while keeping your UI persistent, you need to update your character reference every time the player respawns. You can do this by using the player.CharacterAdded event inside your persistent script. It's a bit of extra work, but it's the "right" way to handle long-term UI.
Working with LocalScripts and Persistence
When you decide to go the persistent route, you have to change how you think about your code structure. Usually, we're used to scripts being "short-lived"—they start when the UI appears and end when it's gone. With persistence, your script is more like a permanent manager.
I usually recommend having a single "MainController" script that stays alive throughout the entire session. This script can handle the opening and closing of different ScreenGuis. Since the UI isn't resetting, you can use Tweens to smoothly hide and show menus without worrying about them suddenly snapping back to their default positions because of a respawn.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
One mistake I see all the time is having some ScreenGuis set to reset and others not, without a clear plan. This leads to a fragmented UI where some buttons work and others don't, or some parts of the HUD disappear while others stay. Consistency is key here.
Another trap is the "Double Event" bug. If you have a script that connects to a remote event, and that script is inside a GUI that resets on spawn, every time the player respawns, a new connection is made. If you aren't careful, you might end up with five different scripts all listening for the same event, causing your gold to double-count or your chat to duplicate messages. This is a classic reason to either use persistence or be very diligent about cleaning up your connections.
How to Find the Property Quickly
If you're looking for it right now and can't find it, here's the quick path: 1. Open Roblox Studio. 2. Go to the Explorer window (usually on the right). 3. Find the StarterGui folder. 4. Click on your ScreenGui object. 5. Look at the Properties window below. 6. Scroll down until you see ResetOnSpawn. 7. Toggle the checkbox.
It's literally that simple, yet it changes the entire behavior of your game's interface.
Designing a Better User Experience
At the end of the day, deciding on your roblox startergui screen gui reset on spawn settings is about the player experience. You want the UI to feel "solid." If a player is interacting with your game, the interface should feel like a constant, reliable tool, not something that's constantly flickering or resetting behind their back.
If you're building something like a simulator where players are dying and respawning constantly to get back to the "grind," keeping the UI persistent is almost mandatory. It keeps the flow going. On the flip side, if you're making a horror game where death is a major "reset" point for the story, having the UI wipe clean might actually add to the feeling of starting over.
Wrapping It Up
Mastering the roblox startergui screen gui reset on spawn property is a small but vital step in becoming a better Roblox developer. It forces you to think about the lifecycle of your scripts and how the player interacts with your world. Whether you choose to keep it on for simplicity or turn it off for a more polished, persistent feel, just make sure you're accounting for those character references and script connections.
Once you get the hang of managing persistent UI, you'll find that your games start feeling a lot more "pro" and a lot less like a collection of separate parts. It's all about creating that seamless flow that keeps players coming back without being frustrated by menus that won't stay put. Happy developing!