Villagers lock profession without being traded with (do not become unemployed when you break their workstation)

This is still an issue in 1.17.11 in Windows 10 realm world. I have 11 librarians. Two of them I made one trade with to lock their trade. I removed all the lecterns and all of them are still librarians. I logged out multiple times with no difference.

I have the same error in Realms, which I have replicated several times. I am 100% certain that these villagers were linked to their specific workstation on each occasion. When I tested this with several villagers in a villager trader area, one at a time, I removed the ‘failed’ villager and their workstation from the area each time so there would be no cross attachment. I tried different slots in the area, in case it was a location issue. Each villager lost their trade when the workstation was broken, and took up their trade, with the green particles, each time they reconnected. But the trades remained exactly what they were prior to the disconnection to the work block. This only happens after I have left the area or logged out midway through the process. If I stay logged in or remain in the area, setting up remains as normally expected.

My trader area is within a chunk and not crossing borders.

I am certain that each villager had not been traded with previously as they came from a villager breeder. I am also certain that I didn’t trade with them at the stage of placing them into the trade area, as I didn’t keep anything in my inventory, so there could be no mistakes.

Same problem, villagers will claim workstations that should belong to another locked in villager. For example, I had 1 lectern and 2 librarians.... couldn't get the one I had not traded with to drop his profession. It would also be great if the area a villager looked for workstations was decreased to a reasonable size. Less than 20 blocks. This area is so large, it makes building near villages and using workstations in builds where you don't want the villagers linking to them impossible.

Reply from @unknown:

Villagers do not choose the nearest workstation in Bedrock Edition. When a villager finds a workstation (or bed or bell), it tells the village. Then the village assigns it to the next villager in a hidden list. To link villagers where you want, you need to figure out which one in the village is next in the list, and then place the workstation you want for that villager.

This issue is still there in bedrock 1.18.30. Not sure what to do. I have tried everything, villagers are not unlinking from workstations even after being broken.

Affects 1.19.2

This happens upon world generation for every village

Affects 1.19.20 and 1.19.30.21 Beta/Preview.

1.19.31 Nintendo Switch

Current Workaround: (Zombie Villagers)

1. Cure Villager (away from any form of technical "villages").

2. Set up the corresponding workstation & bed to the Villager.

3. Exit game.

4. (Optional) Make world backups.

5. Reload world.

6. Set up desired workstation(s).

7. Break the workstation matching the Villager. The Villager should unlink, but they cannot seek out another workstation. (Place back the workstation if you are trying to shuffle trades).

8. Travel about 30-50 blocks away from the Villager. (Unload the chunk(s) the Villager resides.)

9. Return to the Villager. (The Villager should be linked to the desired workstation.)

10. A bit tedious, repeat steps 7-9 to shuffle their trades.

This can only be done with one Villager at a time. Must restart at step 1 if you're planning to cure consecutive villagers.

TL;DR: I miss just setting up workstations for villagers to link & instantly unlink when I break said stations.

Issue persists on Switch and PC on 1.20.31. A lot of these problems would be addressed if villagers that are locked in are prioritized over non-locked in villagers to claim a job block. There's some other issues associated with duplicate villager professions (like a newly discovered village having two clerics, but only one brewing station in town), but fixing this one aspect would allow the player to correct most situations.

I keep winding up with duplicate professions where a locked in villager still has their profession (as expected), but no block to replenish trades. Destroying all blocks of that profession doesn't help since the next available villager, who never had that profession, keeps claiming the block ahead of the locked-in villager.

This issue just happened to me. v1.21.2 on 8/30/2024

Now I have to kill 21 villagers.

Please fix this.