Using too many job site blocks prevents villagers from linking to their workstations
Updated description by [Mod] GoldenHelmet
Steps to reproduce
- Spawn a villager
- Place a bed and workstation and wait for the villager to link to each.
- Trade with the villager to lock in its profession.
- Place at least 32 workstations of a different type within the 32 x 32 area around the villager.
- Break and replace the villager's workstation.
Expected result
The villager relinks to its workstation.
Actual result
The villager does not relink to its workstation.
Original summary
Using barrels causes villagers to lose links to their workstations
Original description
Summary: Trading hall with 17 villagers comprising:
9 Librarians
2 Farmers
1 Butcher
1 Fletcher
1 Fisherman
2 Shepherds
1 Cleric
Observation 1:
6 x Double chests contain items to trade are located very close to the villagers.
In this format, you can break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, replace the workstation and the villager immediately links back to the workstation. This works on all librarians, shepherds and the fletcher so I assume it would for the others trades but this is untested as I have too many alternate workstations in my base (<42 blocks away) for them to link to and I refuse to spend needless time breaking/replacing workstations just for them to link to the one I want them to link to. So this is all hunky dory (kinda) and as the game should work.
Observation 2:
REPLACE 6 x Double chests with 12+BARRELS (to have discrete items in barrels instead of shared items in chests) and locate them close to the villagers
In this format, if you break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, however, replacing the workstation does not cause the villager to immediately link back to the workstation. I have waited until the next day when they are supposed to refresh their trades and they still don't link and will not refresh their trades thus breaking the trading hall.
Solution or temporary fix as observed:
Breaking all the barrels (except the one for the fisherman) and replacing them with double chests seems to fix the linking back to the workstations for the trades where it is feasible to break and replace.
Thoughts: Perhaps because the barrel container is more "advanced" than a standard chest, requiring far more code because of villager interactions, etc - this may be causing too many instructions to be carried out over a given time frame or perhaps locks up something due to container scanning and by breaking the barrels and going back to chests frees the error....NOTE: all the barrels contained trading items, over 75% of them were almost full
Sorry for the essay, but I feel this error may be contributing to other villager trading bugs and hope this helps 
EDIT: NOTE: 15 blocks away around the corner is a furnace array using 12 barrels and downstairs (say 25 blocks away diagonally) is a brewing array using 30 barrels and a cane farm using 4 barrels
Linked Issues
is duplicated by5
MCPE-128666Villagers don't attempt to find job sitesDuplicateMCPE-151219Villager will not link to workstation after joining existing villageDuplicateMCPE-157803Broken villagers in Minecraft bedrock DuplicateMCPE-170189Previously linked Villagers won’t link to job block after updateDuplicateMCPE-170192Villagers won’t relinkDuplicateAttachments1
Created Issue:
Using barrels to store trading items in a trading hall causes villagers to lose their links to their workstations
Summary: Trading hall with 17 villagers comprising:
9 Librarians
2 Farmers
1 Butcher
1 Fletcher
1 Fisherman
2 Shepherds
1 ClericObservation 1:
6 x Double chests contain items to trade are located very close to the villagers.In this format, you can break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, replace the workstation and the villager immediately links back to the workstation. This works on all librarians, shepherds and the fletcher so I assume it would for the others trades but this is untested as I have too many alternate workstations in my base (<42 blocks away) for them to link to and I refuse to needless time breaking/replacing workstations just for them to link to the one I want them to link to. So this is all hunky dory (kinda) and as the game should work.
Observation 2:
REPLACE 6 x Double chests with 12+BARRELS (to have discrete items in barrels instead of shared items in chests) and locate them close to the villagersIn this format, if you break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, however, replacing the workstation does not cause the villager to immediately link back to the workstation. I have waited until the next day when they are supposed to refresh their trades and they still don't link and will not refresh their trades thus breaking the trading hall.
Solution or temporary fix as observed:
Breaking all the barrels (except the one for the fisherman) and replacing them with double chests seems to fix the linking back to the workstations for the trades where it is feasible to break and replace.
Thoughts: Perhaps because the barrel container is more "advanced" than a standard chest, requiring far more code because of villager interactions, etc - this may be causing too many instructions to be carried out over a given time frame or perhaps locks up something due to container scanning and by breaking the barrels and going back to chests frees the error....NOTE: all the barrels contained trading items, over 75% of them were almost full
Sorry for the essay, but I feel this error may be contributing to other villager trading bugs and hope this helps
Summary: Trading hall with 17 villagers comprising:
9 Librarians
2 Farmers
1 Butcher
1 Fletcher
1 Fisherman
2 Shepherds
1 ClericObservation 1:
6 x Double chests contain items to trade are located very close to the villagers.In this format, you can break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, replace the workstation and the villager immediately links back to the workstation. This works on all librarians, shepherds and the fletcher so I assume it would for the others trades but this is untested as I have too many alternate workstations in my base (<42 blocks away) for them to link to and I refuse to spend needless time breaking/replacing workstations just for them to link to the one I want them to link to. So this is all hunky dory (kinda) and as the game should work.
Observation 2:
REPLACE 6 x Double chests with 12+BARRELS (to have discrete items in barrels instead of shared items in chests) and locate them close to the villagersIn this format, if you break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, however, replacing the workstation does not cause the villager to immediately link back to the workstation. I have waited until the next day when they are supposed to refresh their trades and they still don't link and will not refresh their trades thus breaking the trading hall.
Solution or temporary fix as observed:
Breaking all the barrels (except the one for the fisherman) and replacing them with double chests seems to fix the linking back to the workstations for the trades where it is feasible to break and replace.
Thoughts: Perhaps because the barrel container is more "advanced" than a standard chest, requiring far more code because of villager interactions, etc - this may be causing too many instructions to be carried out over a given time frame or perhaps locks up something due to container scanning and by breaking the barrels and going back to chests frees the error....NOTE: all the barrels contained trading items, over 75% of them were almost full
Sorry for the essay, but I feel this error may be contributing to other villager trading bugs and hope this helps
adbkey
Summary: Trading hall with 17 villagers comprising:
9 Librarians
2 Farmers
1 Butcher
1 Fletcher
1 Fisherman
2 Shepherds
1 ClericObservation 1:
6 x Double chests contain items to trade are located very close to the villagers.In this format, you can break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, replace the workstation and the villager immediately links back to the workstation. This works on all librarians, shepherds and the fletcher so I assume it would for the others trades but this is untested as I have too many alternate workstations in my base (<42 blocks away) for them to link to and I refuse to spend needless time breaking/replacing workstations just for them to link to the one I want them to link to. So this is all hunky dory (kinda) and as the game should work.
Observation 2:
REPLACE 6 x Double chests with 12+BARRELS (to have discrete items in barrels instead of shared items in chests) and locate them close to the villagersIn this format, if you break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, however, replacing the workstation does not cause the villager to immediately link back to the workstation. I have waited until the next day when they are supposed to refresh their trades and they still don't link and will not refresh their trades thus breaking the trading hall.
Solution or temporary fix as observed:
Breaking all the barrels (except the one for the fisherman) and replacing them with double chests seems to fix the linking back to the workstations for the trades where it is feasible to break and replace.
Thoughts: Perhaps because the barrel container is more "advanced" than a standard chest, requiring far more code because of villager interactions, etc - this may be causing too many instructions to be carried out over a given time frame or perhaps locks up something due to container scanning and by breaking the barrels and going back to chests frees the error....NOTE: all the barrels contained trading items, over 75% of them were almost full
Sorry for the essay, but I feel this error may be contributing to other villager trading bugs and hope this helps
EDIT: NOTE: 15 blocks away around the corner is a furnace array using 12 barrels and downstairs (say 25 blocks away diagonally) is a brewing array using 30 barrels and a cane farm using 4 barrels
Summary: Trading hall with 17 villagers comprising:
9 Librarians
2 Farmers
1 Butcher
1 Fletcher
1 Fisherman
2 Shepherds
1 ClericObservation 1:
6 x Double chests contain items to trade are located very close to the villagers.In this format, you can break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, replace the workstation and the villager immediately links back to the workstation. This works on all librarians, shepherds and the fletcher so I assume it would for the others trades but this is untested as I have too many alternate workstations in my base (<42 blocks away) for them to link to and I refuse to spend needless time breaking/replacing workstations just for them to link to the one I want them to link to. So this is all hunky dory (kinda) and as the game should work.
Observation 2:
REPLACE 6 x Double chests with 12+BARRELS (to have discrete items in barrels instead of shared items in chests) and locate them close to the villagersIn this format, if you break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, however, replacing the workstation does not cause the villager to immediately link back to the workstation. I have waited until the next day when they are supposed to refresh their trades and they still don't link and will not refresh their trades thus breaking the trading hall.
Solution or temporary fix as observed:
Breaking all the barrels (except the one for the fisherman) and replacing them with double chests seems to fix the linking back to the workstations for the trades where it is feasible to break and replace.
Thoughts: Perhaps because the barrel container is more "advanced" than a standard chest, requiring far more code because of villager interactions, etc - this may be causing too many instructions to be carried out over a given time frame or perhaps locks up something due to container scanning and by breaking the barrels and going back to chests frees the error....NOTE: all the barrels contained trading items, over 75% of them were almost full
Sorry for the essay, but I feel this error may be contributing to other villager trading bugs and hope this helps
EDIT: NOTE: 15 blocks away around the corner is a furnace array using 12 barrels and downstairs (say 25 blocks away diagonally) is a brewing array using 30 barrels and a cane farm using 4 barrels
Summary: Trading hall with 17 villagers comprising:
9 Librarians
2 Farmers
1 Butcher
1 Fletcher
1 Fisherman
2 Shepherds
1 ClericObservation 1:
6 x Double chests contain items to trade are located very close to the villagers.In this format, you can break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, replace the workstation and the villager immediately links back to the workstation. This works on all librarians, shepherds and the fletcher so I assume it would for the others trades but this is untested as I have too many alternate workstations in my base (<42 blocks away) for them to link to and I refuse to spend needless time breaking/replacing workstations just for them to link to the one I want them to link to. So this is all hunky dory (kinda) and as the game should work.
Observation 2:
REPLACE 6 x Double chests with 12+BARRELS (to have discrete items in barrels instead of shared items in chests) and locate them close to the villagersIn this format, if you break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, however, replacing the workstation does not cause the villager to immediately link back to the workstation. I have waited until the next day when they are supposed to refresh their trades and they still don't link and will not refresh their trades thus breaking the trading hall.
Solution or temporary fix as observed:
Breaking all the barrels (except the one for the fisherman) and replacing them with double chests seems to fix the linking back to the workstations for the trades where it is feasible to break and replace.
Thoughts: Perhaps because the barrel container is more "advanced" than a standard chest, requiring far more code because of villager interactions, etc - this may be causing too many instructions to be carried out over a given time frame or perhaps locks up something due to container scanning and by breaking the barrels and going back to chests frees the error....NOTE: all the barrels contained trading items, over 75% of them were almost full
Sorry for the essay, but I feel this error may be contributing to other villager trading bugs and hope this helps
EDIT: NOTE: 15 blocks away around the corner is a furnace array using 12 barrels and downstairs (say 25 blocks away diagonally) is a brewing array using 30 barrels and a cane farm using 4 barrels
Using barrelsto store trading items in a trading hallcauses villagers to losetheirlinks to their workstations
relates to
![[Mod] GoldenHelmet](../../../data/avatars/users/18951.svg){kind=small}
Updated description by [Mod] GoldenHelmet
Steps to reproduce
- Spawn a villager
- Place a bed and workstation and wait for the villager to link to each.
- Trade with the villager to lock in its profession.
- Place at least 32 workstations of a different type within the 32 x 32 area around the villager.
- Break and replace the villager's workstation.
Expected result
The villager relinks to its workstation.
Actual result
The villager does not relink to its workstation.
Original description
Summary: Trading hall with 17 villagers comprising:
9 Librarians
2 Farmers
1 Butcher
1 Fletcher
1 Fisherman
2 Shepherds
1 ClericObservation 1:
6 x Double chests contain items to trade are located very close to the villagers.In this format, you can break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, replace the workstation and the villager immediately links back to the workstation. This works on all librarians, shepherds and the fletcher so I assume it would for the others trades but this is untested as I have too many alternate workstations in my base (<42 blocks away) for them to link to and I refuse to spend needless time breaking/replacing workstations just for them to link to the one I want them to link to. So this is all hunky dory (kinda) and as the game should work.
Observation 2:
REPLACE 6 x Double chests with 12+BARRELS (to have discrete items in barrels instead of shared items in chests) and locate them close to the villagersIn this format, if you break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, however, replacing the workstation does not cause the villager to immediately link back to the workstation. I have waited until the next day when they are supposed to refresh their trades and they still don't link and will not refresh their trades thus breaking the trading hall.
Solution or temporary fix as observed:
Breaking all the barrels (except the one for the fisherman) and replacing them with double chests seems to fix the linking back to the workstations for the trades where it is feasible to break and replace.
Thoughts: Perhaps because the barrel container is more "advanced" than a standard chest, requiring far more code because of villager interactions, etc - this may be causing too many instructions to be carried out over a given time frame or perhaps locks up something due to container scanning and by breaking the barrels and going back to chests frees the error....NOTE: all the barrels contained trading items, over 75% of them were almost full
Sorry for the essay, but I feel this error may be contributing to other villager trading bugs and hope this helps
EDIT: NOTE: 15 blocks away around the corner is a furnace array using 12 barrels and downstairs (say 25 blocks away diagonally) is a brewing array using 30 barrels and a cane farm using 4 barrels
Updated description by [Mod] GoldenHelmet
Steps to reproduce
- Spawn a villager
- Place a bed and workstation and wait for the villager to link to each.
- Trade with the villager to lock in its profession.
- Place at least 32 workstations of a different type within the 32 x 32 area around the villager.
- Break and replace the villager's workstation.
Expected result
The villager relinks to its workstation.
Actual result
The villager does not relink to its workstation.
Original description
Summary: Trading hall with 17 villagers comprising:
9 Librarians
2 Farmers
1 Butcher
1 Fletcher
1 Fisherman
2 Shepherds
1 ClericObservation 1:
6 x Double chests contain items to trade are located very close to the villagers.In this format, you can break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, replace the workstation and the villager immediately links back to the workstation. This works on all librarians, shepherds and the fletcher so I assume it would for the others trades but this is untested as I have too many alternate workstations in my base (<42 blocks away) for them to link to and I refuse to spend needless time breaking/replacing workstations just for them to link to the one I want them to link to. So this is all hunky dory (kinda) and as the game should work.
Observation 2:
REPLACE 6 x Double chests with 12+BARRELS (to have discrete items in barrels instead of shared items in chests) and locate them close to the villagersIn this format, if you break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, however, replacing the workstation does not cause the villager to immediately link back to the workstation. I have waited until the next day when they are supposed to refresh their trades and they still don't link and will not refresh their trades thus breaking the trading hall.
Solution or temporary fix as observed:
Breaking all the barrels (except the one for the fisherman) and replacing them with double chests seems to fix the linking back to the workstations for the trades where it is feasible to break and replace.
Thoughts: Perhaps because the barrel container is more "advanced" than a standard chest, requiring far more code because of villager interactions, etc - this may be causing too many instructions to be carried out over a given time frame or perhaps locks up something due to container scanning and by breaking the barrels and going back to chests frees the error....NOTE: all the barrels contained trading items, over 75% of them were almost full
Sorry for the essay, but I feel this error may be contributing to other villager trading bugs and hope this helps
EDIT: NOTE: 15 blocks away around the corner is a furnace array using 12 barrels and downstairs (say 25 blocks away diagonally) is a brewing array using 30 barrels and a cane farm using 4 barrels
Updated description by [Mod] GoldenHelmet
Steps to reproduce
- Spawn a villager
- Place a bed and workstation and wait for the villager to link to each.
- Trade with the villager to lock in its profession.
- Place at least 32 workstations of a different type within the 32 x 32 area around the villager.
- Break and replace the villager's workstation.
Expected result
The villager relinks to its workstation.
Actual result
The villager does not relink to its workstation.
Original summary
Using barrels causes villagers to lose links to their workstations
Original description
Summary: Trading hall with 17 villagers comprising:
9 Librarians
2 Farmers
1 Butcher
1 Fletcher
1 Fisherman
2 Shepherds
1 ClericObservation 1:
6 x Double chests contain items to trade are located very close to the villagers.In this format, you can break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, replace the workstation and the villager immediately links back to the workstation. This works on all librarians, shepherds and the fletcher so I assume it would for the others trades but this is untested as I have too many alternate workstations in my base (<42 blocks away) for them to link to and I refuse to spend needless time breaking/replacing workstations just for them to link to the one I want them to link to. So this is all hunky dory (kinda) and as the game should work.
Observation 2:
REPLACE 6 x Double chests with 12+BARRELS (to have discrete items in barrels instead of shared items in chests) and locate them close to the villagersIn this format, if you break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, however, replacing the workstation does not cause the villager to immediately link back to the workstation. I have waited until the next day when they are supposed to refresh their trades and they still don't link and will not refresh their trades thus breaking the trading hall.
Solution or temporary fix as observed:
Breaking all the barrels (except the one for the fisherman) and replacing them with double chests seems to fix the linking back to the workstations for the trades where it is feasible to break and replace.
Thoughts: Perhaps because the barrel container is more "advanced" than a standard chest, requiring far more code because of villager interactions, etc - this may be causing too many instructions to be carried out over a given time frame or perhaps locks up something due to container scanning and by breaking the barrels and going back to chests frees the error....NOTE: all the barrels contained trading items, over 75% of them were almost full
Sorry for the essay, but I feel this error may be contributing to other villager trading bugs and hope this helps
EDIT: NOTE: 15 blocks away around the corner is a furnace array using 12 barrels and downstairs (say 25 blocks away diagonally) is a brewing array using 30 barrels and a cane farm using 4 barrels
Usingbarrels causes villagersto loselinksto their workstationsUsing too many job site blocks prevents villagers from linking to their workstations
![[Mod] OcelotOnesie](../../../data/avatars/users/43220.png){kind=small}
![[Mojang] Mega_Spud (Jay Wells)](../../../data/avatars/users/92696.png){kind=small}
is duplicated by
![[Bot] Arisa](../../../data/avatars/users/43007.png){kind=small}
is duplicated by
is duplicated by
![[Mod] EVGENSYPERPRO](../../../data/avatars/users/92853.png){kind=small}
Updated description by [Mod] GoldenHelmet
Steps to reproduce
- Spawn a villager
- Place a bed and workstation and wait for the villager to link to each.
- Trade with the villager to lock in its profession.
- Place at least 32 workstations of a different type within the 32 x 32 area around the villager.
- Break and replace the villager's workstation.
Expected result
The villager relinks to its workstation.
Actual result
The villager does not relink to its workstation.
Original summary
Using barrels causes villagers to lose links to their workstations
Original description
Summary: Trading hall with 17 villagers comprising:
9 Librarians
2 Farmers
1 Butcher
1 Fletcher
1 Fisherman
2 Shepherds
1 ClericObservation 1:
6 x Double chests contain items to trade are located very close to the villagers.In this format, you can break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, replace the workstation and the villager immediately links back to the workstation. This works on all librarians, shepherds and the fletcher so I assume it would for the others trades but this is untested as I have too many alternate workstations in my base (<42 blocks away) for them to link to and I refuse to spend needless time breaking/replacing workstations just for them to link to the one I want them to link to. So this is all hunky dory (kinda) and as the game should work.
Observation 2:
REPLACE 6 x Double chests with 12+BARRELS (to have discrete items in barrels instead of shared items in chests) and locate them close to the villagersIn this format, if you break any workstation, angry particles emit from villager, however, replacing the workstation does not cause the villager to immediately link back to the workstation. I have waited until the next day when they are supposed to refresh their trades and they still don't link and will not refresh their trades thus breaking the trading hall.
Solution or temporary fix as observed:
Breaking all the barrels (except the one for the fisherman) and replacing them with double chests seems to fix the linking back to the workstations for the trades where it is feasible to break and replace.
Thoughts: Perhaps because the barrel container is more "advanced" than a standard chest, requiring far more code because of villager interactions, etc - this may be causing too many instructions to be carried out over a given time frame or perhaps locks up something due to container scanning and by breaking the barrels and going back to chests frees the error....NOTE: all the barrels contained trading items, over 75% of them were almost full
Sorry for the essay, but I feel this error may be contributing to other villager trading bugs and hope this helps
EDIT: NOTE: 15 blocks away around the corner is a furnace array using 12 barrels and downstairs (say 25 blocks away diagonally) is a brewing array using 30 barrels and a cane farm using 4 barrels
is duplicated by
clones
is duplicated by
Daniel - if your using a lot of barrels to store items in next to your villagers, consider using chests instead as I have logged an issue in MCPE-79433 that has a video showing this strange behaviour
Not sure if this will help but my latest observations are that multiple barrels in the vicinity of a trading hall completely screws with their linking AI - see MCPE-79433. I've included a short video of it happening.
Whats really weird is the fact that it was fixed by removing the barrels. I'm stumped that barrels should even cause this issue and even moreso that it was fixed by removing them. Furthermore, there are barrels only 25+ blocks away in my base (however they are 5-7 lower on the Y coordinate).
If anyone else can replicate this it would be useful I feel
Does MCPE-79433 describe your issue?
For reference, it is intended that villagers do not necessarily link to the nearest workstation: MCPE-45270.
Villagers do search for new POI blocks constantly. When they find them, they add them to a list for the village, and then the village links the next available villager in its dwellers list to the next POI (workstations to profession-locked villagers only if they match, of course). There is a limit to the found & unlinked POI list though. Does MCPE-79433 explain what’s happening in your world?
Could you provide a copy of the affected world? You may upload it to a file sharing site and post the link here.
I know, MCPE-45270 is working as intended, though I'm hoping that villagers would just try to grab the available job site that is right next to them, it'll solve a lot of headache! Or perhaps an item that lets you manually link each villager to a point of interest.
MCPE-79433 might be similar to my issue. I do have a big village with lots of unlinked job sites like barrels lying around, although they're spread apart and not packed in a small area. Will reloading the game fix the issue in MCPE-79433? I think you can reopen that ticket, it might be related to what I'm experiencing on 1.17.30 at the moment. Although, the four farmers I mentioned might have another problem entirely. Once they fixed zombie villager zombification on hard mode, I could safely try to zombify and cure these farmers, to see if that'll "restart" their AI.
I have 51 villagers in a big town, 47 of which are working after restarting app. I estimate that the town is about 240 x 240 blocks wide, with about 100 job site blocks scattered about, trying to stitch the entire village together with job sites and beds.
The butcher and shepherd I mentioned does not have angry particles nor green particles, they never try to link to a job site, unless I restart the app. Also, I'd rather not share this private world, sorry about this.
Thank your for the additional detail. I've reconfirmed MCPE-79433 in 1.17.32 and I am 100% sure that's your issue. Sorry it took so long to figure out. The unlinked job site block list can only hold 32 entries, so with 100 job site blocks around and only 51 villagers to use them, your village will not be able to record all of the unused ones. The reason some villagers link when you reload is that the village's list of unlinked POI gets remade every time you reload the world, and the blocks that get found first will vary randomly. If you start breaking the job site blocks that you aren't using, your stuck villagers should start linking again. Keep in mind that a job site block must been with 16 blocks horizontal and 4 vertical of a villager to be found and added to the village's list.
After further investigation, I found that this is a duplicate of MCPE-79433 . I destroyed the barrels that I was using as storage and the new villager now properly links to the lectern. You can close this issue and link it to the other one.
Since you say there are many free workstations and the video shows a very large village, can you see if MCPE-79433 describes your issue? If you have >32 free workstations for other professions in the village then that is your issue.
Thanks, I’ll resolve this report as a duplicate. Please add your vote to MCPE-79433 and follow that ticket for updates.
Does MCPE-79433 or MCPE-45270 describe your issue? Have you tried placing multiple workstations or removing all that are not claimed by villagers?
Files larger than 10 MB can be uploaded to a file sharing site like onedrive, googedrive, mediafire, etc., and the link given in a comment here.
Based on comments there may be multiple issues causing the problems. Here are 2 known issues:
- There is a limit of 32 unclaimed workstations that a village can detect (MCPE-79433). This is often an issue where barrels are used for storage. For example: if your villagers happen to detect 32 barrels and you have no fishermen or unemployed villagers to take them, then your clerics and librarians will not be able to re-link to their brewing stands or lecterns if you break and replace the brewing stands or lecterns. However, the unclaimed workstations have to be re-found each time the world is loaded, so a villager who can't link in one session may link immediately in the next session because the workstations are detected in a different order.
- Villagers sometimes switch professions after trading (MCPE-117852). This one has no confirmed explanation yet. It seems to involve a desync, ether between client and server, or between individual villagers and the global "village manager" function that assigns workstation links. It may involve some kind of "stuck in a loop" or process priority bug in the village manager.
Plausibly, the issue your realm has with villagers not linking at all has the same underlying cause as MCPE-117852, but it would be important to rule out blockage from too many unlinked job blocks.
I am not able to reproduce this in 1.14.60, so it looks like a new beta bug, perhaps caused by the fix to
MCPE-49580.Does the same thing happen if you place other workstations than barrels? For example, if you break your fisherman’s barrel and place a bunch of lecterns, will your fisherman not re-link when you replace his barrel?
No I don't get a problem with other workstations and linking (not even with the librarians). I can break any one of the 9 lecturns, replace it - and the corresponding librarian will link straight back to it. It just seems to be the placing of too many barrels in the trading hall that affects the general linking to ANY workstation. As long as I haven't got a glitched gamesave, if I break the fisherman's barrel, they will just continue to link to one of the other 50+ or so barrels in my base away from the hall (see the EDIT note above), but in time they will link. What I actually do is break ALL 50+ barrels first and place the fisherman's barrel so they link up, then replace all the other 50 which is damn crazy. This is why there is only ONE fisherman in my base lol. Please also note that I haven't a clue as to why the other 50 barrels in my base don't affect the linking (they are 5+ lower on the Y coordinate), but placing say 10 more barrels within a few blocks of the villagers feet does??? I think the conflict of the player needing to use certain workstations (i.e. barrels for storage, grindstones for disenchanting, looms for banner creation, etc) alongside the mechanic of unemployed villagers wanting to naturally link to the players workstations is a recipe for disaster. and I'm hoping Bedrock gets the parity Java code (released in a recent snapshot) that will prevent villagers from linking to workstations they cant path-find to. But this is beyond here as this is for bug tracking not suggestions.
You can vote for MCPE-50441 on the linking to workstations they can't pathfind to. Also
MCPE-43071on the issue of seniority in linking, which was added in a recent Java snapshot.I wonder if the issue is villages having a limit to how many workstations they can hold in a detected-but-not-linked list. I am going to try to test that.
Update: Yes, in 1.14.60 there is a limit of 32 unlinked workstations that a village can detect. However, this list is not saved permanently, it is remade every time you relog.
Thanks for the great detective work and clarification of what's happening with the game mechanics. I've counted the total number of workstations in my base and it's at least 66 but this is spread out in a multi-layered way but because my base has villagers with beds and jobsites it's probably trying to make a big village with a hard to track boundary. This could possibly explain why my farmers who tend their crops in two 9x9 areas (1 farm above the other) have high outputs on some days and very little on others. They can be looking into space at their jobsite virtually all day, I can harvest a crop and suddenly they go bananas and start harvesting. And I love thunderstorms because it's the only time they fully harvest the full 9x9 area....perhaps it's the linking and non linking that is causing this....(noting your observation that the list is remade every time to the player relogs...) - Many thanks once again!
I hope this gets fixed soon! It's still happening on 1.17.32. I have a big 240 x 240 village with 54 villagers, and with over 100 job site blocks scattered around the village as decoration, it seems that some villagers will never link to any job site, no green particles or anger particles. Even though they already have locked jobs, they behave like unemployed villagers, just wandering around aimlessly.
Restarting the app seems to fix most villagers, after a restart they'll start working again, although some of my farmers will not seek a job site no matter what.
Update: still a big issue on the latest version (1.18.12). The app restarting trick still works, but it might take several tries if you have too many job blocks around. My farmers are finally working again after several app restarts near them, they're finally seeking job sites. After a while they might stop working again (no particles), and I'd have to restart again, which is annoying.
I sure wish there's a tool to point villagers to beds, bells, and job sites in the future!
I've confirmed that it still happens on 1.18.32, 1.19, 1.19.21, and now 1.19.30. I use a lot of job blocks for storage and decoration (barrels, composters, grindstone), and employed villagers will sometimes not work and just wander around without particles. I prefer using barrels as storage because chests seem to cause more lag.
This is still an issue in 1.20.41. It took a ton of testing to find that expanding my lava farm beyond 32 cauldrons was the cause. Once I moved the cauldrons over 32 blocks away, my villagers are taking job sites as they should.
Seeing this after the 1.20.70 update.
Villager trading hall with 10 established librarians that are working and linking as expected. New villager (zillager from a spawner) cured, locked, and brought in from over 100 blocks away. Librarians in a 1x1 cell and standing on lecterns (again other 10 are fine). After trading, 1st 10 reset as expected - new librarian does not reset even after waiting multiple in game days. Villagers are within 20 blocks of 20-30 barrels. There are no fisherman in the trading hall. Breaking barrels closest to bugged librarian causes bugged librarian to reset trades. Confirmed twice by trading and breaking barrels causing bugged librarian to reset. Also noted that breaking the bugged librarian's workstation does not cause normally expected storm clouds. Bugged librarian will also not link to a newly placed lectern when no other lectern is present. All other librarians are trading as expected so no cross linking. No other village within 100 blocks. Bed and lectern used for curing that were located 100 blocks away were also broken and removed as a precaution. No change in bugged librarian after breaking remote bed and lectern.