Guide: How to AVOID glitched islanders in four SIMPLE steps!

The Mad Hybrid Botanist

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Good evening folks! :)
I am sure that most people are aware of the "I've moved out" glitch. It can happen from trading villagers in general, and not just from forced amiibo card move-outs! Villagers can also glitch days later, and not just when they move in!
This is a guide on how to tell if a villager is glitched before accepting them into your town, and how to mitigate this risk as much as possible!

Firstly: I would like to point out that if you already have a glitched plot, please check out the guide linked here on how to remove it: https://www.belltreeforums.com/thre...ut-plots-and-or-move-any-villager-out.512278/
Secondly: I, unfortunately, cannot guarantee if this technique is 100% effective for everyone, however, with everyone I have shared this technique with, the glitch has been avoided thus far! I have also asked players with glitched plots on their experience with trading. They have all confirmed that they have noticed this prerequisite (as discussed in the guide) occurring while trading, before there villager glitched out. They have also noted that this has only happened with villagers who meet this prerequisite!
Lastly: I have noticed that other traders have realized that this is a way to prevent the glitch, but I have not seen a guide posted on here (correct me if I'm wrong), so I just thought that everyone on here would benefit from this before their dream villager gets Thanos-snapped out of existence.

The Method:
1) When talking to an islander in boxes, keep talking to them until they are contemplating on moving to your island. Encourage them to do so (the usual adoption method).
2) After convincing them to move to your place, talk to them again! If you see that they are not aware that they are moving to your island and that you can invite them to your town again, this has been proven to link to the villager later glitching (even if you do not speak to them after inviting them the first time)! This is the prerequisite of the glitch!
If they are aware that they are moving to your island when speaking to them again, and if you cannot invite them multiple times, congratulations, the islander is not glitched! You can skip steps three and four and enjoy your dream islander!
3) If the islander can be invited multiple times when talking to them, and are not aware that they have agreed to move to yours. Bingo! They are glitched. Let the person you are trading with know to disconnect the trade (such as through force quitting the game, putting your switch on sleep, etc. - just do not save and end the trade the traditional way).
4) Once disconnected, go back to their island and start from step one once more!
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When trading islanders, I would highly recommend that both you and the person trading with you are aware of this method!
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Closing Thoughts:
I hope I made these steps clear. I apologize for the guide being drawn out for too long. I just wanted to get every point across!

- I traded around 7 islanders this week, and of the 7 I traded, only 1 glitched (Molly). She was the only one who I was able to ask twice, and she was not aware that I invited her! So I was able to invite her as many times as I wanted to! This is not normal. I assumed that it was just some sort of mistake? She moved in perfectly fine! I did not expect her to glitch nearly 7 active days later (7 time-traveled days). That's when I thought that this might have been why. I also remember someone mentioning this here: https://www.belltreeforums.com/threads/glitches-from-the-adoption-of-villagers.480956/

- I have since time traveled, many upon many active days while cycling villagers out, and no one else has glitched! RIP Molly - you will always be loved!

I hope this works for everyone else! Have a lovely afternoon! Stay safe during COVID-19!

EDIT: A member sicklewillow mentioned: "Some have reported that even though their villager can be invited only once, a glitch can still occur once they invites someone after or visited other island."

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. They are correct - I would like to mention (correct me if I am wrong please):
- When inviting another islander, make sure to follow these same steps as one glitched islander can glitch an existing spot
- Be careful when traveling to other islands with an empty plot. You can get a glitched plot through their void!

I hope this gets patched soon! Thanks all!
 
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It's nice to know there appears to be a fairly easy work around, but I must ask... what if during the process of inviting, your game auto-saves?

Regardless, I do hope the Earth Day update patches these issues out.
 
This is REALLY useful info. Thank you so much for researching this and finding a temporary fix to avoid this!!
No worries! I hope it works for you! Thanks for reading (also I have made slight edits to make it easier to somewhat understand - just wanted to note this).
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It's nice to know there appears to be a fairly easy work around, but I must ask... what if during the process of inviting, your game auto-saves?

Regardless, I do hope the Earth Day update patches these issues out.
Thanks for reading (also I have made slight edits to make it easier to somewhat understand - just wanted to note this).
From my understanding, the host force quitting the game and disconnecting the wifi during the trade resets all of the conditions, as if the trade never took place (I could be wrong)!
 
It's nice to know there appears to be a fairly easy work around, but I must ask... what if during the process of inviting, your game auto-saves?

Regardless, I do hope the Earth Day update patches these issues out.
From what I've heard, if the host force-quits the game then both players revert back to the last hard save that was made in their airport which undoes any auto-saves that may have happened during the online session.
 
Just want to add that some have reported that even though their villager can be invited only once, a glitch can still occur once they invites someone after or visited other island. But I hope traders would voluntarily put the OP precaution as well.
 
Is this with natural move out only? Are amiibo forced out villagers included in this?
The glitch affects all forms of move-outs now, so this method covers every form of islander trade, whether pushed out naturally or through amiibo!
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Just want to add that some have reported that even though their villager can be invited only once, a glitch can still occur once they invites someone after or visited other island. But I hope traders would voluntarily put the OP precaution as well.
Oh yeah! I should have made note of this! They can also get a glitched plot from someone's voided villager moving in, if my memory serves me correct (as you noted)? Can I please quote you on this under the instructions (I will mention your name as well)?

Thank you for bringing this to my attention!
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Also, when inviting someone after, they should also still follow these steps to ensure that the next islander is also not glitched!
 
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Thanks for the guide! Is there anything that the host can do? Like does it matter if you kick out X with an Amiibo to bring in Y and then kick out Y with X again? I have several Amiibos and I wanna try to minimize the chance of a glitch for my trader on my end :)
 
This is actually really helpful. Thank you for making a thread, and hopefully this will get trading worry free again!
 
This just happened to me trying to move in Daisy from my friend’s town & I’m so unbelievably upset, I had no idea that there was even additional villager glitches past the patched amiibo one until now :,)

I’m trying to understand thru the link you posted if there’s a way to fix this rn as Daisy is still in boxes on my friends island. But so, I suppose the fact that it says Mira is moving in means I have the dud plot on my island now... I can’t believe this is a thing.
 
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Just want to add that some have reported that even though their villager can be invited only once, a glitch can still occur once they invites someone after or visited other island. But I hope traders would voluntarily put the OP precaution as well.
I quoted ur point and elaborated on them in the original post at the very bottom (as I assumed the thumbs up meant it was okay). I hope I understood your point clearly! Thanks!
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Thanks for the guide! Is there anything that the host can do? Like does it matter if you kick out X with an Amiibo to bring in Y and then kick out Y with X again? I have several Amiibos and I wanna try to minimize the chance of a glitch for my trader on my end :)
Kicking out villagers through amiibos no longer matter, as all move-outs have the potential to be glitched! I think the best thing a host can do, is to inform the trader of this prerequisite to glitching, and accommodating them by disconnecting the trade and connecting it once more to try again if they encounter the problem mentioned! I hope this helps!
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This is actually really helpful. Thank you for making a thread, and hopefully this will get trading worry free again!
I hope this works for everyone. So far no one that I know of has encountered the glitch using this method! I hope it remains this way!
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No worries! I think it is important for people to be aware that there is a way to get rid of existing glitched spots!
Thanks for the guide shoutout :) Great guide!
 
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This sounds about right!

(Before I got my town on lockdown) I did a few trades and gifts, and only one villager has glitched with the repeated invitation prompt.
Sadly, no matter how many times we force-quitted and retried, he kept repeating the prompt.
I had to send him to the void :(

Oh, also, he was forced out via amiibo.
All my other successful trades have been done via TT; no repeated prompt.
 
This sounds about right!

(Before I got my town on lockdown) I did a few trades and gifts, and only one villager has glitched with the repeated invitation prompt.
Sadly, no matter how many times we force-quitted and retried, he kept repeating the prompt.
I had to send him to the void :(

Oh, also, he was forced out via amiibo.
All my other successful trades have been done via TT; no repeated prompt.
Sorry that he was sent to the void!
Although all trades can cause the glitch since the latest "patch fix", I wonder if Amiibo move-outs have a higher chance of causing it. It was something that has been on my mind recently.
 
Sorry that he was sent to the void!
Although all trades can cause the glitch since the latest "patch fix", I wonder if Amiibo move-outs have a higher chance of causing it. It was something that has been on my mind recently.
It's ok, at least we didn't get our plots glitched!

And same.
It has been the only difference between this one and all my other trades (the amiibo force-out, i mean).
And also considering my trade partner tried again with a different person, just after me, and it went well, so I'm sure I was the one with the problem.
 
It's ok, at least we didn't get our plots glitched!

And same.
It has been the only difference between this one and all my other trades (the amiibo force-out, i mean).
And also considering my trade partner tried again with a different person, just after me, and it went well, so I'm sure I was the one with the problem.
Sorry could you explain more, what was the main difference between your trade and the second persons?
 
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