Villagers of the same profession switching workstations

LateLag - I guess I should have been a little clearer when I described what I did.

I brought in 7 villagers 1 at a time from over 100 blocks away, set down a composter, then after the green particles (assuming that he claimed that workstation) I went back and got another.  Put him in the adjoining cell, set down a composter, waited till the green particles, then repeated this step 5 more times.  7 farmer villagers in a row in their own 2x3 cells,  No other villagers or workstations within 100 blocks besides the ones in their own holding cell that they claimed.  I traded with them over and over.  They kept changing workstations for some odd reason.  I had to open the cells and when their work day got started and they shuffled around to get to their newly changed workstations, I locked them back up again, they restocked, then I traded again locking out most of their trades.  Again, same thing, after a while, random green particles were emitted by some and again, I had to open the cells and wait for when they went back to work to their workstations, several selected new composters.  Again, once they went to work at their composter I locked them in again.  Again I traded and locked trades, again they did the same thing, changed workstations.  This is madness. 

I suggest that we allow the villager work at any workstation of their profession.  Change the code to nearest, and if that is taken, pick the next as long as there is nothing blocking their pathfinding to get to it.  Something, Anything is better than this.

LateLag - I guess I should have been a little clearer when I described what I did.

I brought in 7 villagers 1 at a time from over 100 blocks away, set down a composter, then after the green particles (assuming that he claimed that workstation) I went back and got another.  Put him in the adjoining cell, set down a composter, waited till the green particles, then repeated this step 5 more times.  7 farmer villagers in a row in their own 2x3 cells,  No other villagers or workstations within 100 blocks besides the ones in their own holding cell that they claimed.  I traded with them over and over.  They kept changing workstations for some odd reason.  I had to open the cells and when their work day got started and they shuffled around to get to their newly changed workstations, I locked them back up again, they restocked, then I traded again locking out most of their trades.  Again, same thing, after a while, random green particles were emitted by some and again, I had to open the cells and wait for when they went back to work to their workstations, several selected new composters.  Again, once they went to work at their composter I locked them in again.  Again I traded and locked trades, again they did the same thing, changed workstations.  This is madness. 

I suggest that we allow the villager work at any workstation of their profession.  Change the code to nearest, and if that is taken, pick the next as long as there is nothing blocking their pathfinding to get to it.  Something, Anything is better than this.

Let me add to this in a significant way. I, like Victor Adkins here, moved villagers over 100 blocks away, Librarians in this case. One at a time, wait out the librarian(Sitting in a boat) breaks connection to single workstation and renew trade options until a desired book trade appears(green particles and everything over Villager and workstation)  I paper trade until he locks up and confine him to his 2x3 cubby with assigned bed and workstation, Rinse and Repeat, perma lock him in. I add in Villager 4 lock him in—and everyone Switches workstations to a workstation in another cubbyhole. In this Case Villager 1 seems to want either Villager 4's station, 4 want's V3's, V3 takes V2's and V2 to V1.

I have Noted that this seems to occur when you get more than 3 villagers in an Area, and or, finally getting a Mending Villager screws everything up. Can't break the workstations either and try to Reset which station a villager claims, because as a Villager you have traded with and started unlocking won't lock into a workstation again, making it impossible to even really make a workable trading system.

Makes me miss the Old Villagers. These new ones either don't stay locked to an accessible station or run refusing to take a job—(Regular unemployed Villagers, not Nitwits)

Let me add to this in a significant way. I, like Victor Adkins here, moved villagers over 100 blocks away, Librarians in this case. One at a time, wait out the librarian(Sitting in a boat) breaks connection to single workstation and renew trade options until a desired book trade appears(green particles and everything over Villager and workstation)  I paper trade until he locks up and confine him to his 2x3 cubby with assigned bed and workstation, Rinse and Repeat, perma lock him in. I add in Villager 4 lock him in—and everyone Switches workstations to a workstation in another cubbyhole. In this Case Villager 1 seems to want either Villager 4's station, 4 want's V3's, V3 takes V2's and V2 to V1.

I have Noted that this seems to occur when you get more than 3 villagers in an Area, and or, finally getting a Mending Villager screws everything up. Can't break the workstations either and try to Reset which station a villager claims, because as a Villager you have traded with and started unlocking won't lock into a workstation again, making it impossible to even really make a workable trading system.

Makes me miss the Old Villagers. These new ones either don't stay locked to an accessible station or run refusing to take a job—(Regular unemployed Villagers, not Nitwits)

I'm getting the same thing, v1.12. 

I have a breeder 100 blocks away, i bring villagers from there to a job selection room containing one bed.

I place job block until I get what I want, then lock thier profession with a trade and break thier block.

Then I send them to thier trading pod, which is 1x2 with a flower pot on one block so they can still path but dont move much.  I give them thier job block again.

Repeat. Each time there are green particles on placing job block and smoke on removing it as expected.

Occasionally some of the villagers waiting to be processed outside the job selector room will take the job block rather than the one in the room, so I just place a few more then break them all etc.  Some of those waiting will then get bugged and not realise thier job block doesn't exist, so I usually kill those as they come in.

Everything is fine for awhile, and then the villagers in the hall start switching to eachothers workstations and cannot restock.  I attempt to fix is by breaking all job blocks, then placing one by one down and spot the green sparkles on the villager that "wants" it, and replace next to the villager spotted.  They basically forget/get mixed up every time I turn my back.

When replacing the job blocks, usually I place it down, and there is green sparkles on both the villager that wants it and the blocks. This is consistent, if i break/replace multiple times, it's always the same "next villager" that gets the sparkles. 

But for one or two instances I get the following strange behaviours:

 - Place job block, get green sparkles and immediate smoke on the job block, but usually can still find the villager that wanted the block.  This is consistent, if I break/replace it happens again and is always paired to same villager.

 - Place job block, get green sparkles, but no matching villager.  If I leave the job block down out of the way somewhere, I'm able to continue pairing with the remaining villagers, with that ghost job block persisting, almost like there is a hidden villager somewhere.  However when I kill all the villagers in the trading hall (I've had this happen with only 2 villagers present) I can't get that ghost villager to claim the job block, so it's almost like one of the villagers claimed two job blocks.  This ghosting doesn't happen again as I try to fill up the trading hall again ether.

It's made my grand plans for a villager trading hall basically pointless, unless I switch to java edition or something.

I'm getting the same thing, v1.12. 

I have a breeder 100 blocks away, i bring villagers from there to a job selection room containing one bed.

I place job block until I get what I want, then lock thier profession with a trade and break thier block.

Then I send them to thier trading pod, which is 1x2 with a flower pot on one block so they can still path but dont move much.  I give them thier job block again.

Repeat. Each time there are green particles on placing job block and smoke on removing it as expected.

Occasionally some of the villagers waiting to be processed outside the job selector room will take the job block rather than the one in the room, so I just place a few more then break them all etc.  Some of those waiting will then get bugged and not realise thier job block doesn't exist, so I usually kill those as they come in.

Everything is fine for awhile, and then the villagers in the hall start switching to eachothers workstations and cannot restock.  I attempt to fix is by breaking all job blocks, then placing one by one down and spot the green sparkles on the villager that "wants" it, and replace next to the villager spotted.  They basically forget/get mixed up every time I turn my back.

When replacing the job blocks, usually I place it down, and there is green sparkles on both the villager that wants it and the blocks. This is consistent, if i break/replace multiple times, it's always the same "next villager" that gets the sparkles. 

But for one or two instances I get the following strange behaviours:

 - Place job block, get green sparkles and immediate smoke on the job block, but usually can still find the villager that wanted the block.  This is consistent, if I break/replace it happens again and is always paired to same villager.

 - Place job block, get green sparkles, but no matching villager.  If I leave the job block down out of the way somewhere, I'm able to continue pairing with the remaining villagers, with that ghost job block persisting, almost like there is a hidden villager somewhere.  However when I kill all the villagers in the trading hall (I've had this happen with only 2 villagers present) I can't get that ghost villager to claim the job block, so it's almost like one of the villagers claimed two job blocks.  This ghosting doesn't happen again as I try to fill up the trading hall again ether.

It's made my grand plans for a villager trading hall basically pointless, unless I switch to java edition or something.

Yes!!! Same exact scenario here.... librarians shuffling workstations to other cubbies in the trading hall. On mobile 1.12. Made my trading hall practically useless, or a pain to use. Have to release them every work day so they can find their new workstations and reset.

Yes!!! Same exact scenario here.... librarians shuffling workstations to other cubbies in the trading hall. On mobile 1.12. Made my trading hall practically useless, or a pain to use. Have to release them every work day so they can find their new workstations and reset.

**Ok, I've fixed some things but still having some odd stuff happening, so here's an update.

1. Villagers were losing job site because that one bed was being lost, since it wasn't accessible to any villager.  Then another claimed it.  This seemed to delete and recreate the village, resetting job blocks.  This explains the first thing I've seen, and I've got that one bed now in a sealed room with a permenant villager.  From UME I'm not seeing the village id in the village table changing either.

2. I used UME to look at the village, and it turns out I had a villager hidden in the bricks somewhere, got rid of him, no more "ghost" claiming of job sites.

However, as of writing my villagers are not restocking.  They do not have access to a bed, but based on what I read on the wiki, they don't need a bed to restock trades.  I've looked at UME, and the 3 traders I have in my village (plus the guy in the sealed room) are all there in the DWELLERS table, and the traders are correctly hooked up to thier job sites on the POI table.  I tried removing the job site (which fills the lower half of a 2x1 gap, blocking them in) to check they can path correctly and the villager walked out and wandered around - I even placed this guy a job site in the open which he claimed, but trades were still not refilling after waiting maybe another 15mins irl.

Is there anything else I can check here?  Sorry for the cross post - let me know if I need to create or chip in on a different issue.

**Ok, I've fixed some things but still having some odd stuff happening, so here's an update.

1. Villagers were losing job site because that one bed was being lost, since it wasn't accessible to any villager.  Then another claimed it.  This seemed to delete and recreate the village, resetting job blocks.  This explains the first thing I've seen, and I've got that one bed now in a sealed room with a permenant villager.  From UME I'm not seeing the village id in the village table changing either.

2. I used UME to look at the village, and it turns out I had a villager hidden in the bricks somewhere, got rid of him, no more "ghost" claiming of job sites.

However, as of writing my villagers are not restocking.  They do not have access to a bed, but based on what I read on the wiki, they don't need a bed to restock trades.  I've looked at UME, and the 3 traders I have in my village (plus the guy in the sealed room) are all there in the DWELLERS table, and the traders are correctly hooked up to thier job sites on the POI table.  I tried removing the job site (which fills the lower half of a 2x1 gap, blocking them in) to check they can path correctly and the villager walked out and wandered around - I even placed this guy a job site in the open which he claimed, but trades were still not refilling after waiting maybe another 15mins irl.

Is there anything else I can check here?  Sorry for the cross post - let me know if I need to create or chip in on a different issue.

Same problem for me. I even put all villagers in a 1 by 1 cell with no work stations and locked professions with work stations out of reach and out of sight and still every morning they switched work stations

Same problem for me. I even put all villagers in a 1 by 1 cell with no work stations and locked professions with work stations out of reach and out of sight and still every morning they switched work stations

@unknown: I'm not sure where you're getting your understanding of the mechanics from, but what you describe is pretty much guaranteed to make them release their workstations. If a villager is unable to reach a block beside its workstation 3 times in a row, it will release it and try to find another one.

The standard way to make a stable village is to add one villager at a time, giving it a bed and a workstation that it can reach (make sure both bed and workstation show green particles).

To repopulate your current village/farm, you'll first need to break all the beds and move the villagers farther than 64 blocks (96 is better) from where the nearest bed or workstation is going to be placed. Then you can bring in one villager at a time.

@unknown: I'm not sure where you're getting your understanding of the mechanics from, but what you describe is pretty much guaranteed to make them release their workstations. If a villager is unable to reach a block beside its workstation 3 times in a row, it will release it and try to find another one.

The standard way to make a stable village is to add one villager at a time, giving it a bed and a workstation that it can reach (make sure both bed and workstation show green particles).

To repopulate your current village/farm, you'll first need to break all the beds and move the villagers farther than 64 blocks (96 is better) from where the nearest bed or workstation is going to be placed. Then you can bring in one villager at a time.

Thats what i was doing before. Hence why i started doing the 1 by 1 because, like you said, they have to be ale to reach their work stations. Which they obviously cannot yet they were still somehow doing. Ill try again later but as i said at 1 point i was 300 blocks away from the original village (i was doing 100 block increments) and was still getting villagers form the original village claiming the work stations from the new village.  

Thats what i was doing before. Hence why i started doing the 1 by 1 because, like you said, they have to be ale to reach their work stations. Which they obviously cannot yet they were still somehow doing. Ill try again later but as i said at 1 point i was 300 blocks away from the original village (i was doing 100 block increments) and was still getting villagers form the original village claiming the work stations from the new village.  

Oh, OK. Your problem is either that you're trying to move dwellers far enough to make them forget their village (that won't work unless you break their beds, too) or that the village boundaries have somehow been hugely expanded. In the latter case, breaking all the beds will cause the village to no longer exist, and then you can create a new default 64 x 64 village when you bring in the first villager and give it a bed. If you have more villagers outside the village (actually, it might be more than 64 blocks from the first villager), they won't see the village until you bring them closer.

If your village is huge, there's a chance that it includes other "villages" (in the "bunch of houses separated from other bunches of houses" sense) despite what looks like a lot of distance between them. That's bad, because you'd need to break all the beds in all these "villages" to reset your village to its default size.

The bug tracker isn't really meant to be a place for getting help from the community; we just don't have enough time for that. If you need further support, please try Reddit or the Minecraft Discord. You can always come back here if everything fails and you decide it's actually part of this bug.

Oh, OK. Your problem is either that you're trying to move dwellers far enough to make them forget their village (that won't work unless you break their beds, too) or that the village boundaries have somehow been hugely expanded. In the latter case, breaking all the beds will cause the village to no longer exist, and then you can create a new default 64 x 64 village when you bring in the first villager and give it a bed. If you have more villagers outside the village (actually, it might be more than 64 blocks from the first villager), they won't see the village until you bring them closer.

If your village is huge, there's a chance that it includes other "villages" (in the "bunch of houses separated from other bunches of houses" sense) despite what looks like a lot of distance between them. That's bad, because you'd need to break all the beds in all these "villages" to reset your village to its default size.

The bug tracker isn't really meant to be a place for getting help from the community; we just don't have enough time for that. If you need further support, please try Reddit or the Minecraft Discord. You can always come back here if everything fails and you decide it's actually part of this bug.

Oops sorry. This thread popped up when i googled. Hadn't realized i was miss-using this forum. My apologies.

Oops sorry. This thread popped up when i googled. Hadn't realized i was miss-using this forum. My apologies.

im having a similar issue, however i've got a villager breeder next to my trading hall, each of my trading villagers is locked in a 1*3 area with a bed and a workstation, which i sync up when moving them into the trading area from the breeder, however they often switch beds, and workstations dispute not being able to path-find to any other points of interest. i currently play on the latest version on my xbox one, and this set up has worked in previous versions without a problem

im having a similar issue, however i've got a villager breeder next to my trading hall, each of my trading villagers is locked in a 1*3 area with a bed and a workstation, which i sync up when moving them into the trading area from the breeder, however they often switch beds, and workstations dispute not being able to path-find to any other points of interest. i currently play on the latest version on my xbox one, and this set up has worked in previous versions without a problem

I'm still having issues with this. Please just allow villagers to use nearest accessable workstation. I've got 25+ librarians. I need them locked up and organized to know which librarian sells what enchantment. I refuse to let them roam free-range because Mojang decided to be an absolute pain in the arse about how villager mechanics should work.

I'm still having issues with this. Please just allow villagers to use nearest accessable workstation. I've got 25+ librarians. I need them locked up and organized to know which librarian sells what enchantment. I refuse to let them roam free-range because Mojang decided to be an absolute pain in the arse about how villager mechanics should work.

I am also still having this issue. I also have new Villagers "stealing" work stations that they should not be able to path-find to. This is a very big problem as it breaks the Villager trading mechanic. Villagers can not restock due to having their workstations "stolen".

I am also still having this issue. I also have new Villagers "stealing" work stations that they should not be able to path-find to. This is a very big problem as it breaks the Villager trading mechanic. Villagers can not restock due to having their workstations "stolen".

I have been having this problem for quite a while.  On the positive side, the villagers don't lose their profession, so if you break all the workstations associated with that profession and take the time to place them one by one (place, look to see who connects, break the station, place it by that villager) you can reset everything.  Not bad when you have two clerics, a little bit of a problem in a building with 16 masons (each with a different color terracotta trade), and a real PItA for a library with 35 librarians.  Since my village has 60 villagers spread out over multiple buildings I haven't even tried to rework their beds, although this hasn't created an issue since it doesn't affect the restocking of trades.

I have been having this problem for quite a while.  On the positive side, the villagers don't lose their profession, so if you break all the workstations associated with that profession and take the time to place them one by one (place, look to see who connects, break the station, place it by that villager) you can reset everything.  Not bad when you have two clerics, a little bit of a problem in a building with 16 masons (each with a different color terracotta trade), and a real PItA for a library with 35 librarians.  Since my village has 60 villagers spread out over multiple buildings I haven't even tried to rework their beds, although this hasn't created an issue since it doesn't affect the restocking of trades.

This bug is about instability of villager-workstation and villager-bed associations. Several recent comments about unrelated problems with villager behaviors have been removed, along with one whose purpose was to suggest changes to how villagers behave.

Comments here are meant as a way for users to add new and additional information that might help the developers understand and diagnose the problem. For other purposes, try the following sites:

• To discuss this or another problem with other players, please visit Community Support.

• To suggest changes, please visit Feedback and Suggestions.

• If you have found a new bug, please search to ensure it hasn't been reported earlier. If it hasn't, create a new report as described in the Issue Guidelines (see links below).

• To discuss how bug reports are handled, please visit the Mojira Discord.

Quick Links:
📓 Issue Guidelines – 💬 Community Support – 📧 Customer Support – ✍️ Feedback and Suggestions – 📖 Game Wiki

This bug is about instability of villager-workstation and villager-bed associations. Several recent comments about unrelated problems with villager behaviors have been removed, along with one whose purpose was to suggest changes to how villagers behave.

Comments here are meant as a way for users to add new and additional information that might help the developers understand and diagnose the problem. For other purposes, try the following sites:

• To discuss this or another problem with other players, please visit Community Support.

• To suggest changes, please visit Feedback and Suggestions.

• If you have found a new bug, please search to ensure it hasn't been reported earlier. If it hasn't, create a new report as described in the Issue Guidelines (see links below).

• To discuss how bug reports are handled, please visit the Mojira Discord.

Quick Links:
📓 Issue Guidelines – 💬 Community Support – 📧 Customer Support – ✍️ Feedback and Suggestions – 📖 Game Wiki

This needs to be made a top priority. Considering the village and pillage update was (I believe) the first of the simultaneous bedrock and java feature launches it is extremely frustrating to see bedrocks villagers continue to be ignored.

My friend and I just built a 40 villager librarian hall using the standing in water trick to prevent them from delinking.... It didn't work. We literally watched the entire hall relink to tables on opposing chunks.... Our hall covers a total of 4 chunks it's going to be a pain to re-pair all of the librarians every time we use the hall.....

This is on fully updated serves and clients running 1.16.2 I think that's gone stable... Problem is the Microsoft store said we were on 1.16.1 on launch day so it's really hard to know ... Could be .1 whatever the "stable" release is currently.

This is turning into one of most important parity issues now that Java's villagers aren't picky about their workstations and will simply utilise the closest one by seniority.

This needs to be made a top priority. Considering the village and pillage update was (I believe) the first of the simultaneous bedrock and java feature launches it is extremely frustrating to see bedrocks villagers continue to be ignored.

My friend and I just built a 40 villager librarian hall using the standing in water trick to prevent them from delinking.... It didn't work. We literally watched the entire hall relink to tables on opposing chunks.... Our hall covers a total of 4 chunks it's going to be a pain to re-pair all of the librarians every time we use the hall.....

This is on fully updated serves and clients running 1.16.2 I think that's gone stable... Problem is the Microsoft store said we were on 1.16.1 on launch day so it's really hard to know ... Could be .1 whatever the "stable" release is currently.

This is turning into one of most important parity issues now that Java's villagers aren't picky about their workstations and will simply utilise the closest one by seniority.

@unknown: The bug tracker staff is made up of volunteers, not Mojang employees. We have no input into priority or scheduling of bug fixes, so when we get comments like that there's nothing we can do but ignore them. You should direct those comments to the Community Management team.

Some thoughts on your comments:

1. As far as I know, the simultaneous release of 1.16 versions in Java and Bedrock was not intended to be meaningful. Mojang didn't make any announcement about enhanced parity or an intention to keep releases in sync for the future.

2. There are lots of YouTube showcase and tutorial videos on building trading halls and other artificial villages in Bedrock. Some of them describe ways to stack them vertically for greater volume. That might be a workaround you would find useful.

3. The latest release of the server software is 1.16.1.

4. This is not a party issue. That villagers allocate workstations and beds to themselves is a parity feature; how they do it is not. Parity's goal is to give each version equivalent gameplay experiences, but it doesn't promise that the same steps will produce them in both.

@unknown: The bug tracker staff is made up of volunteers, not Mojang employees. We have no input into priority or scheduling of bug fixes, so when we get comments like that there's nothing we can do but ignore them. You should direct those comments to the Community Management team.

Some thoughts on your comments:

1. As far as I know, the simultaneous release of 1.16 versions in Java and Bedrock was not intended to be meaningful. Mojang didn't make any announcement about enhanced parity or an intention to keep releases in sync for the future.

2. There are lots of YouTube showcase and tutorial videos on building trading halls and other artificial villages in Bedrock. Some of them describe ways to stack them vertically for greater volume. That might be a workaround you would find useful.

3. The latest release of the server software is 1.16.1.

4. This is not a party issue. That villagers allocate workstations and beds to themselves is a parity feature; how they do it is not. Parity's goal is to give each version equivalent gameplay experiences, but it doesn't promise that the same steps will produce them in both.

I am also having this issue on the Nintendo Switch (v. 1.16.1). Villagers will try to take a bed that already has a villager, will ignore empty beds, and will stand at job blocks unrelated to their profession. I don't know if they are just all having a mid-life crisis, but this doesn't allow them to restock trades.

I am also having this issue on the Nintendo Switch (v. 1.16.1). Villagers will try to take a bed that already has a villager, will ignore empty beds, and will stand at job blocks unrelated to their profession. I don't know if they are just all having a mid-life crisis, but this doesn't allow them to restock trades.

@Chrissy Nilsen: the issue shown in your picture is covered by MCPE-56889. It is not related to this ticket. This ticket is about villagers of the same profession switching job blocks.

@Chrissy Nilsen: the issue shown in your picture is covered by MCPE-56889. It is not related to this ticket. This ticket is about villagers of the same profession switching job blocks.

This needs to be priority fix. I spent nearly 2 hours re-rolling trades to get a mere Fortune l and went to get more emeralds only to come back and have the librarian switch to a farmer after I locked his trades. I've been completely discouraged from playing survival at all anymore  when I really want to.

This needs to be priority fix. I spent nearly 2 hours re-rolling trades to get a mere Fortune l and went to get more emeralds only to come back and have the librarian switch to a farmer after I locked his trades. I've been completely discouraged from playing survival at all anymore  when I really want to.

@Gianni Veraldi: what you describe is MCPE-62080, not this bug.

@Gianni Veraldi: what you describe is MCPE-62080, not this bug.

The related issue MCPE-43071 is reported to be fixed in 1.16.200.52 beta. That fix may also fix this bug. We welcome feedback from beta testers following the reproduction steps in the description.

Update: tested after 1.16.200 release with the steps and test world listed in the description, and could not longer reproduce. Resolving as Fixed.