How Do Portal Timers ACTUALLY Work?

So I've heard everywhere else that oh you wait 7-10-15 minutes or whatever and the portal is gone forever, don't AFK on your portals.

But. I just woke up, and opening up the game, I find... a map from like ten hours ago sitting there with four portals missing.

Clearly portals in hideout are exempt on some level from the above rule, right? BUT.

... I have had other experiences where, I spend some time doing something in my hideout and then I look over at my map device and the portals have all closed up on me. I think I had a 'The Atlas' invitation close up on me for instance, fortunately long after I had completed it, but still.

So what, is it tied to whether or not the portal is considered 'active' by the game? Is that why the lower two portals here are still up?



Because here, you can't see them on the minimap because I am too far away, but right above Niko there are two portals, both functional. Because they aren't 'active'? That probably isn't the case though, right? If I'm AFK, meaning if I AFK timer'd my invitation portals in the previous example, I'm probably at my crafting bench/stash up here right?

Maybe in that example I was busy doing stuff, and it has something to do with the /afk command preserving portals? I don't even know?

So, title.

How do portal timers actually work?

"

But. I just woke up, and opening up the game, I find... a map from like ten hours ago sitting there with four portals missing.

portal still "show" does not matter. Can you use it matter.