# OTAA best practice: how to not join every time?

**URL:** <https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/t/otaa-best-practice-how-to-not-join-every-time/14601>\
**Category:** End Devices (Nodes)\
**Created:** [May 28, 2018, 2:53pm UTC](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/t/otaa-best-practice-how-to-not-join-every-time/14601 "2018-05-28T14:53:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 11

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**Author:** ![arjanvanb](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/user_avatar/www.thethingsnetwork.org/arjanvanb/32/46626_2.png) [@arjanvanb](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/u/arjanvanb)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2018, 11:35am UTC](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/t/otaa-best-practice-how-to-not-join-every-time/14601/11 "2018-06-02T11:35:45Z")

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I don’t think a node ever needs to reply immediately. But indeed, like for a confirmed downlink, it needs to store the fact that a confirmation was requested, so it can set the ACK bit in the next uplink. Even if that uplink is days later. When not doing that, then TTN will be required to send the downlink again.

(So I guess `mac save` indeed does not suffice there. ~~But I even don’t see the frame counters mentioned above, so maybe `mac save` is just not the right command at all, or~~ though the documentation is outdated, see below.)

Related:

- [OTAA then ABP](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/t/otaa-then-abp/12377)
- [How often should a node do an OTAA Join, and is OTAA better than ABP?](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/t/how-often-should-a-node-do-an-otaa-join-and-is-otaa-better-than-abp/11192)

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