I was having a problem with an Iron farm I built in my spawn chunks recently, and I have now found out why it isn't working. My world spawn point moves every time I go to the Nether. Then, when I save and re-load the game it resets back to where it was originally. This is in a vanilla single player 1.8.7 world.
Apparently this is an old, unresolved bug in Minecraft that the developers don't care about. I've found a bug report dating back 3 years that has not even been assigned yet. The bug is confirmed, and there are numerous duplicates referenced, but nothing is being done about it.
Original world spawn located at: -124, 67, -112
After going to the Nether it's at: 8, 52, 8
After saving and re-loading the game it returns to its original location (-124, 67, -112)
It seems that going to the Nether moves spawn out of range of my farm and the chunks unload. So how do people build working farms in their spawn chunks? Do you just not ever go to the Nether?
I just never build in the spawn, I always look for some place that's really neat and speaks to the aesthetic in me
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Even without this bug spawn chunks will be unloaded after 60 seconds if you go to another dimension - unless you make a chunkloader to keep them loaded; for example, have a dispenser fire poppies (from an iron farm) into a portal every 45 seconds. This also seems to work despite the apparent change in the spawn point, which I don't think actually causes the game to load new spawn chunks; for example, after going to the Nether in my current world, when I hadn't been close to 0, 0 yet, I did not see any chunks get generated around that point (the game always generates a 25x25 chunk area around the world spawn point). Also, the bug report you link to says that dying also "resets" the spawn point, which again suggests a bug associated with the way compasses work and not an actual loss of the world spawn point, possibly a client-side issue (there many other examples of bugs caused by client-server desynchronization, such as the issues with boats, block breaking lag, Unbreaking tools reappearing after breaking, and so on).
I thought the same thing was happening to me. I changed the spawn chunks to where my iron golem farm is. Went into my nether portal and came back and it created a portal all the way back at the original spawn points, don't know why. I had a compass and thought it changed it but when I looked at NBTexplorer the spawn chunks where still were I set them. I forgot compass don't work in the nether and apparently when you bring them back they still don't work.
Did you read the bug report description and comments? Your spawn chunks don't change, just where the compass points. So this bug isn't your issue with spawn chunks. As TMC says when you travel to the nether spawn chunks become unloaded unless you have a chunkloader mechanism in place.
Sorry for digging up this semi-old post, but obviously it's still a problem, even in 1.9. I did indeed read the bug report and comments; everyone was complaining about the compass, but I didn't see anything that said it didn't also affect the spawn chunks location. I might have missed something, but just because no one explicitly said it, and/or you misunderstood OP's question, that doesn't mean this problem isn't real...
I did some experiments:
I use the nether to travel, then hang out in the overworld for a few hours. Then I use the nether to return home only to find that my iron farm wasn't working the entire time.
Conversely, I travel a few hundred blocks away in the overworld, hang out for a few hours, iron farm does great, just like it was always loaded.
Enter the nether, come back out, compass pointing to 0,0 instead of spawn, then travel away via overworld... Come back home, and iron farm didn't work. It should've been perma-loaded, but it obviously was not.
Mind you, I would love to be proven wrong about this! It's such a cruel and subtle bug.
Sorry for digging up this semi-old post, but obviously it's still a problem, even in 1.9. I did indeed read the bug report and comments; everyone was complaining about the compass, but I didn't see anything that said it didn't also affect the spawn chunks location. I might have missed something, but just because no one explicitly said it, and/or you misunderstood OP's question, that doesn't mean this problem isn't real...
I did some experiments:
I use the nether to travel, then hang out in the overworld for a few hours. Then I use the nether to return home only to find that my iron farm wasn't working the entire time.
Conversely, I travel a few hundred blocks away in the overworld, hang out for a few hours, iron farm does great, just like it was always loaded.
Enter the nether, come back out, compass pointing to 0,0 instead of spawn, then travel away via overworld... Come back home, and iron farm didn't work. It should've been perma-loaded, but it obviously was not.
Mind you, I would love to be proven wrong about this! It's such a cruel and subtle bug.
I was having a problem with an Iron farm I built in my spawn chunks recently, and I have now found out why it isn't working. My world spawn point moves every time I go to the Nether. Then, when I save and re-load the game it resets back to where it was originally. This is in a vanilla single player 1.8.7 world.
Apparently this is an old, unresolved bug in Minecraft that the developers don't care about. I've found a bug report dating back 3 years that has not even been assigned yet. The bug is confirmed, and there are numerous duplicates referenced, but nothing is being done about it.
Original world spawn located at: -124, 67, -112
After going to the Nether it's at: 8, 52, 8
After saving and re-loading the game it returns to its original location (-124, 67, -112)
It seems that going to the Nether moves spawn out of range of my farm and the chunks unload. So how do people build working farms in their spawn chunks? Do you just not ever go to the Nether?
I just never build in the spawn, I always look for some place that's really neat and speaks to the aesthetic in me
Even without this bug spawn chunks will be unloaded after 60 seconds if you go to another dimension - unless you make a chunkloader to keep them loaded; for example, have a dispenser fire poppies (from an iron farm) into a portal every 45 seconds. This also seems to work despite the apparent change in the spawn point, which I don't think actually causes the game to load new spawn chunks; for example, after going to the Nether in my current world, when I hadn't been close to 0, 0 yet, I did not see any chunks get generated around that point (the game always generates a 25x25 chunk area around the world spawn point). Also, the bug report you link to says that dying also "resets" the spawn point, which again suggests a bug associated with the way compasses work and not an actual loss of the world spawn point, possibly a client-side issue (there many other examples of bugs caused by client-server desynchronization, such as the issues with boats, block breaking lag, Unbreaking tools reappearing after breaking, and so on).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
I thought the same thing was happening to me. I changed the spawn chunks to where my iron golem farm is. Went into my nether portal and came back and it created a portal all the way back at the original spawn points, don't know why. I had a compass and thought it changed it but when I looked at NBTexplorer the spawn chunks where still were I set them. I forgot compass don't work in the nether and apparently when you bring them back they still don't work.
Did you read the bug report description and comments? Your spawn chunks don't change, just where the compass points. So this bug isn't your issue with spawn chunks. As TMC says when you travel to the nether spawn chunks become unloaded unless you have a chunkloader mechanism in place.
by c0yote
I tried it with terrible results. I gave my wife my glasses for a second, a creeper showed up and now my wife is pregnant.
Stupid 3D..
Sorry for digging up this semi-old post, but obviously it's still a problem, even in 1.9. I did indeed read the bug report and comments; everyone was complaining about the compass, but I didn't see anything that said it didn't also affect the spawn chunks location. I might have missed something, but just because no one explicitly said it, and/or you misunderstood OP's question, that doesn't mean this problem isn't real...
I did some experiments:
Mind you, I would love to be proven wrong about this! It's such a cruel and subtle bug.
Both times it failed you traveled to the nether. As has already been stated the overworld unloads unless you have a chunk loader active at your farm. See the wiki for details: http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Spawn_chunk#Spawn_chunks_and_other_dimensions
by c0yote
I tried it with terrible results. I gave my wife my glasses for a second, a creeper showed up and now my wife is pregnant.
Stupid 3D..