Locking Inventory Slots vs Hotbar Slots: What Each One Protects

Two Different Rows

Your inventory has a hotbar row and a main grid, and ItemLocks treats them as separate slots. Locking hotbar slot 3 does not lock main-inventory slot 3, even though they share a number. If you want full protection for an item, lock the slot it is actually sitting in.

When to Lock Each

Hotbar slots are the ones you interact with during combat and mining, so they are the ones exposed to the drop key. Lock these for anything you use actively: sword, pickaxe, bow, food, blocks you are placing.

Main inventory slots matter when you are moving items around in the GUI — shift-clicking loot into a chest, dragging stacks between rows, or reorganizing after a mining trip. Lock a main slot when it holds something you must not lose track of, such as a shulker box or a stack of rare materials you are saving.

Moving a Locked Item

If you want a locked item in a different slot, unlock the source slot, move the item, then lock the destination. Do not try to drag a locked stack — the mod will block it and it will look like the game is ignoring your click.

Quick Habit

Before any trip: lock the hotbar slots you rely on. Before any inventory sort: unlock everything, sort, then re-lock. Two passes with the lock and unlock keys cover almost every situation.