As is known by many, it is possible on SMP servers for the Respawn button to create multiple entities representing the player in latent connections.
Evidently, when the player disconnects, only the entity being controlled is destroyed; the other remains. However, the server does not count the player as disconnected; no "left the game" message is displayed to others.
When the player logs in again, he finds himself in the spot of the old duplicate (no matter where the controlled entity was when disconnection occurred) with an empty inventory. Other players do not receive connection notices and the player appears to have been online the whole time.
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galaxy_2alex
Ticket resolved as incomplete, because no answer in a reasonable amount of time (1+ year), if it still happens, please update the ticket.
Is this still a concern in the current Minecraft version? If so, please update the affected versions in order to best aid Mojang ensuring bugs are still valid in the latest releases/pre-releases. If this has been done, we can reopen the issue.
Keep in mind that the "Resolved"-Status on this ticket just means "Answered", and that we are waiting for further information on whether this issue still exists or not. We will reopen it as soon as the requested information has been delivered.