Experience Orbs Not Being Absorbed

Reopening based on new reports of this issue.

Affects Windows 10 1.2.0.31 singleplayer world. Video clip: XP orb won't be absorbed

This issue had seemed to have gone away, but yesterday it happened to me again in my singleplayer world (1.2.8). It does seem much rarer now than it used to.

I think the original problem with this was the XP would orbit around the players head, which was very distracting and could cause a flashing effect. That part of this issue should be fixed now - could you please confirm?

Still happening in 1.2.11.4. It happened to me twice 4 days ago. The orbs mostly float around my feet, but can fly into my face after I jump down a block.

I tried to record a video, but the Game Bar "Record That" function didn't work correctly.

Still an issue and affects Switch 1.4.1 according to MCPE-35037.

This happened to me again in 1.4.2.0 (first time in a long time). Two orbs would not be absorbed after killing a husk. I saved the world and used an NBT editor to look at them; each was worth 1 point. When I reloaded the world, I was attacked by a zombie and killed it before I could check, so I absorbed orbs from that. I don't know if the 2 stuck orbs disappeared or were absorbed, but they were gone.

Cleaning up old tickets: This ticket has not been updated recently (~1 year+) so is being closed as Cannot Reproduce. If you feel this is still a valid issue then please comment, or create a new ticket following the Issue Guidelines.

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This issue affects 1.11.4

I see it happen often, when experience orbs are sitting on the ground out of range from the player for a few minutes.

I will try and make a reliable setup to reproduce the issue and provide the video.

Still affects 1.41.1 hotfix. See MCPE-61185 Also found a less detailed version of what looks to be the same bug MCPE-44073

I killed the enderdragon and none of the m were absorbed

in singleplayer

can confirm on pc/xbox for all 1.14 updates, and all 1.16 betas up to 1.16.0.64🙂

Affects 1.16.0.67 beta

This bug affetcs items to. I've seen it since 1.14.1.3

Confirmed for beta 1.16.20.50

Happening to me in my Enderman farm in the End dimension. PS4 bedrock, 1.16.1 singleplayer, orbs float around at feet.

Happened to me as well on Windows 10 version 1.16.1.  Traded with some villagers and now have an XP ball following me that will not absorb.

I'm experiencing the same on a regular basis on my Windows 10 1.16.10 version. Approximately 1/3 of the orbs will follow me and not absorb. This is experienced almost every time using my skeleton farm but I also see it out in the world too.

Note: this is a singleplayer world and I did not see this happening this regularly until 1.16 update.

I can make savegame available if necessary.

Affects: 1.16.100.51 Beta

It is an issue in 1.16.20 as well i was just about to search if it was an issue and exited fullscreen to open chrome.. and everything collected at once. So whoever is facing a problem... just exit fullscreen till the bug is fixed🙂

Thanks for that info Saumya but still doesn't help those mobile players.   Imagine my 90k xp /hr gold farm with this issue when I was playing on a server.  Those unabsorbed xp orbs were causing serious lag.

I suspect that although this could be related to desync, and moving up and down (+/-10y) and around and around (on the x and z too) for want of a better description seemed to help.

How is this still not fixed?

I have the same problem. 

https://bugs.mojang.com/secure/attachment/330951/Minecraft.mp4

I have evidence that this is essentially the same as MC-460, as some have speculated, and also that it is due to XP orbs having different collision properties on client and server.

• In

• the changing position of the orbs is due to client-server disagreements about their positions. If you look at the save data after exiting and before reloading, you can see all of the positions where orbs will show up upon reload. That means that the server is saving their positions based on where it "thinks" they are, and not based on where the client shows them on screen.

• In

• you can see that XP orbs have the ability to push mobs. The pig cannot move on top of the waterlogged chests (due to MCPE-37005), but it gets pushed by XP orbs coming out of the trident killer. This means that XP orbs have collision boxes like mobs, and unlike most items.

Putting these pieces of evidence together, I surmise that the XP orbs are actually getting ejected to varying distances from the kill chamber server-side, even up to more than 32 blocks away, due to momentum gained from collisions with mobs and possibly with each other. However, client-side they do not gain extreme momentum and they flow gently down the water stream. The client-side orbs that are desynced will follow you until you relog or happen to walk close enough to their server-side pairs.

This account of the issue explains why some users report that the bug does not occur or occurs less frequently for the host of a multiplayer game. Non-host clients will always be less synced to the server. It also explains why the bug tends to occur around kill chambers and the ender dragon, where lots of orbs are released in a small space.

Recently this has been happening to me a lot more often at my skeleton spawner XP farm. The skeletons fall 22 blocks onto a hopper covered with carpet. After I kill them, the XP rolls toward me, where I'm standing beside the hopper, one block lower than the carpet. Most of the orbs I absorb, but maybe 1/4 of them just drop to the ground at my feet and hover around me there. This all echoes what lots of people have reported so far.

But there's a difference in my case. I have a ladder beside the XP farm that goes up to the top of the drop chute, and also down to the bottom of the watervator that takes the skeletons to the top. If I have an XP orb hovering around me and I go down the ladder, it follows me down but I still don't absorb it. HOWEVER, if I go UP the ladder, as soon as I get a few blocks up (maybe 2 or 3) I hear the tinkle of an orb being absorbed, and when I look back to the orb that was hovering, it's gone! So it may be that the client's position is always 2 to 3 blocks below the server's.

Here is a video of what @unknown describes in the preceding comment, in case it is not clear:

Auldrick allowed me to examine his world, and I think I can shed some light on what is going on. Here is a top-down map of the area:

I looked at the save data in MCCToolchest and found that most of the time when the orbs glitch, the server-side orbs remain at the back of the skeleton kill box. Their saved coordinates when stuck back there are always one of the following:

-2224.875 12.0625 -1275.125
-2224.125 12.0625 -1275.125

I think what is happening is as follows:

1. The server-side orbs get trapped behind the skeletons. They cannot move in the X or Z directions because they collide with the skeletons.

2. The client-side orbs follow the player because they don't have the same collision behavior (as I suggested in my previous comment).

3. When the player climbs up the ladder, the server-side orbs follow in the Y direction. Once they rise above the skeleton collision boxes, they can move closer to the player in the X and Z directions and be absorbed. When the player climbs down the ladder the orbs cannot get any closer, so they are not absorbed.

The skeletons' heads are at Y = 13, so there is empty space above them at Y = 14, but the orbs don't get absorbed until Y = 15.5 or so. I think this is because the player needs to rise high enough to give the client-side orbs enough vertical momentum to overcome the horizontal momentum that is pinning them against the skeletons.

If you allow a very large number of skeletons to accumulate in the kill box, you can get glitched orbs that are not absorbed when climbing the ladder. In this case orbs fly out of the kill box with extreme velocity and land on the other side of the room. The following video shows a client-side orb that cannot be picked up going up and down the ladder or near the kill box, but can be picked up near the bookshelves opposite the kill chamber:

Golden Helmet: I didn't notice this at the time you commented, but the coordinates of the trapped orbs are exactly 1/8 block from either the northwest or the northeast corner of the block the falling skeletons land on. That would make perfect sense if the collision box of an orb is a .25 block on a side. The .0625 fraction in the Y coordinate is 1/16 of a block, which is the thickness of the carpet's collision box.

Yes, but I think you mean southwest and southeast. I made the chart as if facing the skeleton kill chamber, which is on the southeast side of the room.

You're right, my mistake.

Affects 1.16.200.55 Beta.

Per MCPE-99693, this bug can make orbs appear to survive in the void and in lava.

This bug is easily reproducible using powder snow from the new beta. (MCPE-104225)

XP orbs also desync easily in water

I had this problem in a single player world. It went away after some time (might have been because of pausing?).

What we have learned about this issue is that, at least sometimes, it occurs because of a desynchronization between the server and client components of the game. The client thinks the orbs are near the player, but the server thinks they're somewhere else, probably somewhere that blocks them from being able to float toward the player. It's the server that decides when the player absorbs them, so they can't get absorbed unless the player happens to get somewhere where they can float toward him or her.

Desynchronizations can usually be solved by reloading the world, but I'm not sure it would work in this case because I don't know if experience orbs get saved in the world save.

Yes, xp_orb are entities that get saved in the world save. Their saved position will be the server-side position, not the client-side position.

this happens for me too, obstructing view completely in water if I move backwards. forcing me to save & quit to remove the issue.
Android 10 | Oxygen OS 10.3.6
MCPE 1.16.101 Hotfix

do orbs last for 5 mins just like other drops?

Yes

Still happens in .210 and .220, this bug has actually made one of my server farms incredibly hard to make, because we want to deliver the xp somewhere, but we can't see it.

I have seen this issue on Java before but now I have to play on Nintendo switch.  It is quite annoying and I just wanted to put my info in on it to show support for fixing it.

Please add version 1.17.0.2 (general release). OS: Android 11. Device: Pixel 3 XL.

Observed several times playing a Realm. Seen only when numerous orbs were widely spread over terrain as a result of encounters with large slimes. One or more orbs follow the player around at floor level. These are either never picked up as XP, or are picked up after a significant delay.

It has always seemed to me that orbs are absorbed in a particular sequence. If an orb is invisible or hung up somewhere, that leaves the orbs after it in the sequence unable to be absorbed. Those follow you around until you discover the missing one.

UPDATE: Thanks to Auldrick for the great information.

@unknown: We're pretty sure there's no inherent sequence involved. It's a desynchronization between the client and server. This happens when the orbs drop somewhere such that they're blocked from floating toward the player, but the client doesn't get updated about their positions in time and doesn't know they're blocked. So the client thinks they're free to move and renders them accordingly. It's waiting for the server to tell it that you've absorbed them, but the server won't do that because you're not close enough to them for the attraction to be strong enough to float them up and over whatever is in the way. If you go back to where they were dropped and look in, behind, and under everything you'll probably pick them up.

I have been having this issue for a while now, but I noticed something new today. Sometimes the exps are already collected, but the orb do not disappear. Eg: I have a guardian farm which uses tridents to kill the mobs and then the loots and exp floats towards me. What I noticed is that I do not see any orbs coming towards me, but my exp is going higher which means I am collecting them, at the same time, I see the orbs being rendered as stuck where the guardian is killed. When I go to where they show up, none of them are collectable (which makes sense as I have already collected them), but they do appear till I move them somewhere and run away from them till they eventually stop being loaded by the client. I am running client (1.17.2) and server (1.17.1.01) on Windows 10 and tried multiple tick distances. It was not great, but since 1.17 the magnitude seem to have increased

@unblocked: The new behavior you mentioned is actually a separate issue tracked by MCPE-120829 “Experience orbs not moved by flowing water” if you wanted to add your vote to it as well. 👍

I believe the desync actually occurs with every orb immediately after spawning. It's just not obvious because they have the same initial momentum on both client side and server side (except when MCPE-141467 / MCPE-103703 / MCPE-58715 is in effect 😛 .)

Steps to reproduce

1. In creative, fly 10+ blocks above the ground.

2. Throw a Bottle o' Enchanting on the ground, and look at the orbs that spawn.

3. Teleport away far enough that the orbs are outside of simulation distance.

4. Teleport back, and look at the orbs.

5. Relog, and look at the orbs.

Expected result
The orbs appear at the same places after steps 2, 4, and 5.

Actual result
The orbs are at the same places after steps 2 and 5, but after step 4 they appear clumped together at the spot where the Bottle o' Enchanting hit the ground.

I think this means that the position resulting from the initial client-side momentum is not actually saved by the client, and/or the server-side position is only accessible to the client when the orbs initially spawn or initially load from from disk, and never afterward. I.e. the server never updates the client about the position of any orb entities after initial load.

Still present in 1.17.40.21 beta (Android version).

Seed: +420420.  Gameplay mode: Survival  Difficulty: Hard

I have noticed that the persistent desynced orb/s(I have only had this happen with single orbs) track the player character until:

• The player character dies and he respawns, or

• An event yielding more orbs (eg. Zombie killed) occurs. 

After the above the desynced orb is no longer visible.  I am not certain whether it is absorbed or lost.

Attached screenshot shows an orb from coal mining which tracked me for 200x and 170y. It disappeared after I received experience after killing a spider.

This is happening to me more often since 1.16 on Xbox. This can be happened due too much experience orbs (happening to me when I killed zombie (drops 2-4 expierence orbs WARNING! I AM NOT MEANING THE INCREASES OF LEVEL! I AM MEANING ORBS (THEY CAN BE LARGE AND CAN BE COUNTING 2 INCREASES) ). One of the orb was acting like a small slime, but it was not killable when you touch it with Mouse click. Then just disappeared. 😛

I have created an addon to help test and show the nature of this bug.

causes each xp_orb to create a dummy entity called "gh:orb_glow" that looks just like an experience orb. The dummy orbs are leashed tightly to the real experience orbs so that they track the position of the server-side orb. The client-side orbs render without color so that are easy to distinguish, looking like ghosts. The leash appears to connect the dummy colored orb to the client-side ghost orb because it renders based on client-side entity data, but it actually functions to make the dummy colored orb stick to the server-side orb. Using the pack, you can see exactly where each server-side orb is located in comparison to its client-side orb, or vice versa.

I play in a singleplayer world. My villager trading hall consists of several pods containing one villager each. There is a half-slab gap around the bottom of each pod for redstone, and the player is standing on a half-slab while trading. Behind each pod is a lower section (by about a half-slab or one block, I don't recall) that I use to carry a zombie in a minecart to each pod to infect villagers. 

I never pick up all of the XP orbs when trading. There are always a few orbs bouncing around in the pods after each trade. I can run around forever on the main trading floor and never pick up the remaining orbs. But if I walk behind the pods on the minecart track, I pick them all up. 

@unknown: If you "pick them all up", then that's intended behavior. Your orbs are simply getting stuck behind something solid, or they're in a hole where their magnetic attraction isn't strong enough to raise them against gravity. This report isn't about that, it's about orbs that won't be absorbed even after they reach you.

[Mod] GoldenHelmet

I had thought that GoldenHelment's

might have been a temporary solution to not being able to see XPs true position but the "gh:orb_glow" Doesn't show on 1.18.2.03 so the only effect is that it makes XP orbs small and grey! 

I have tried to troubleshoot to no avail,  it would be a great temporary fix for the community if its possible to make the mcpack work again? 

Reply from @unknown:

I also made a patch pack that still works for me in 1.18.2, which you can get at https://mcpedl.com/xp-orb-desync-patch-addon/. It has some limitations and is not a fix by any means, but it gets around the problem of XP position not syncing between client and server.

Thanks for that, I downloaded and ran today and got the message that it was "missing one or more dependancies", then the orbs are now invisible! 

(sorry for formatting, im using chrome and have no ability to mention or reply on here) 

Reply from @unknown:

That message means you have only applied either the behavior pack or the resource pack, and not both. It needs both to function. I would guess that you enabled the resource pack in "global resources" but did not enable the behavior pack in the actual world you want to use it on. You should just enable both on an individual world.

You can block your shield in front of the experience orb(s) and wait to absorb it/them faster! I don't know why this works but I have tried many times and now I can verify it.

@unknown: Your last 2 comments have been removed because they do not conform to our guidelines. Please familiarize yourself with the Mojang Bug Tracker Guidelines and FAQ before commenting again.

Briefly, comments must provide additional information that might help the developers find and fix the problem. Anything else is off topic and may be removed. This is not a Customer Service site. Requests such as yours cannot be addressed here, as we are not Mojang Studios employees, we're volunteers from the community.

Still an issue in 1.19.20

Affects version 1.19.22