Experienced this issue on 1.21 (best guess 1.21.1.x - 1.21.3.x). World initially LAN co-op 2 players PS4 version on PS5, uploaded to Realms about a month ago. All entities now disappeared were initially contained / interacted with before upload (unsure if this is relevant).
Villager trading setup with 4 of each profession created while world was lan co-op about 1.5 years ago, all villagers locked in with at least one trade, most fully upgraded.
After searching through backups over the course of a few weeks, returning to the village in downloaded backups shows villagers progressively disappear over time while unloaded (players 2000+ blocks away, never visiting trading setup between backups). First backup 3 missing, next backup 1 week later a few more missing, next backup 3 days later a few more missing. Today nearly half of the villagers are missing.
There is also a grid of all sheep colors established 1-2 years ago at a base that would have been loaded a few times between those backups where some sheep have now despawned while contained in 4x4 walls.
FortunEdge
Experienced this issue on 1.21 (best guess 1.21.1.x - 1.21.3.x). World initially LAN co-op 2 players PS4 version on PS5, uploaded to Realms about a month ago. All entities now disappeared were initially contained / interacted with before upload (unsure if this is relevant).
Villager trading setup with 4 of each profession created while world was lan co-op about 1.5 years ago, all villagers locked in with at least one trade, most fully upgraded.
After searching through backups over the course of a few weeks, returning to the village in downloaded backups shows villagers progressively disappear over time while unloaded (players 2000+ blocks away, never visiting trading setup between backups). First backup 3 missing, next backup 1 week later a few more missing, next backup 3 days later a few more missing. Today nearly half of the villagers are missing.
There is also a grid of all sheep colors established 1-2 years ago at a base that would have been loaded a few times between those backups where some sheep have now despawned while contained in 4x4 walls.