Difference between leaving with minus button & through airport?

[starlightsong]

What’s the difference between leaving someone’s island by pressing the - button and selecting return to my island, and leaving by going to the airport? I thought they basically just did the same thing except the minus button is faster since you don’t have to walk back to the airport and talk to the dodo, but I just saw someone in another thread say that leaving with the - button is a nuisance and causes trouble? Have I been messing something up in my friend’s islands whenever I choose to leave that way because we’ve wandered off too far from the airport?

 

[niko2]

If you use that and someone else is having a convo/open inventory etc, a countdown will start. If it reaches 0, you will leave but every progress after the last autosave will be lost, and everybody left on the island will "respawn" at the airport. So you can see why it can be annoying if used when many people are playing.

 

[starlightsong]

If you use that and someone else is having a convo/open inventory etc, a countdown will start. If it reaches 0, you will leave but every progress after the last autosave will be lost, and everybody left on the island will "respawn" at the airport. So you can see why it can be annoying if used when many people are playing.

Oh really? I had no idea because I’ve never lost progress or had anyone I was playing with say they lost progress after I left that way! I’ll be more careful with it then, I mostly only used it when playing with friends anyway because I don’t wander around in random people’s towns. I wish there was a warning about that somewhere in the game though tbh.