No ping to move?

[mdchan]

I'm really careful when I TT in my main or secondary town(s) to make room for someone or get someone out. I check at each date change, and will save and quit, then reload, as many times as necessary to make sure that I run in front of every single villager.
I even have a list of my villagers and cross them off when I've run past them so I know that they're "safe" and not moving.

Yet, I've had random move-outs twice. First time was with Zell. None of the other villagers told me he was moving, and when I ran past everyone (even Zell) and nobody pinged, I figured I stopped on the wrong date and continued with the process.
When I loaded the game again, Isabelle told me he was moving out.

This time, it was Purrl. I had to have run past her at least three times while I ran around to see if anyone pinged me during the process, and she didn't ping to tell me she was moving. The others I spoke to didn't mention her, either.
Then, I continue the process again since nobody pinged, and am told she's in boxes.

I am currently (and I believe understandably) pissed off. Why didn't she ping me to tell me she was moving? Why didn't any of the other villagers say "hey, I heard Purrl is thinking of moving"? Argh!

Thankfully, I had space in my cycling town, and so she'll be staying there until she moves again.

Of course, I'm not clear on what comes next: do I need to cycle through 16 villagers to be allowed to get her back, or can I just invite her back when she's in boxes since she was never voided?

I hope it's the latter, because she's one villager I really wanted to keep, and she left...not mentioning the frustration on the final tally (I got someone's voided villager, Yuka, and was doing this to get her out. In the process, Rosie tried to move out 4 times, and Skye tried to move out 3 times...typically back to back. Do they hate my town that much? Oh, and Purrl did attempt to move out twice before this time where I wasn't pinged).

 

[FireNinja1]

Sorry to say, but the answer to your question is the former case. No matter what if someone moves out you have to cycle 16, regardless of where they end up.

 

[mdchan]

Dangit...that's gonna take forever since there's only one villager I want to move out. >.<

 

[Radda]

Some others ping on that day,you just gotta close and reopen if that happens,not run infront of them unless you do the diving trick.

 

[Hypno KK]

Villagers don't always ping you immediately. Running in front of them several times in a row is pointless. If nobody is pinging you, talk to them multiple times and see if they ask you in conversation. If they don't, save, quit, reload, and try again. It can take a few attempts for them to ping you or tell you about it at all.

If you want to be extra safe, when you skip to a new date, save and quit. Then, set your 3DS calendar forward by a few weeks or months and use a new character to check who's missing from your map. Quit without saving, then set your calendar back and use your mayor to do what I said above about talking to them and reloading until they ask you about moving. That also saves time since you'll know exactly which villager it is.

Villagers don't always tell you that someone else is going to move. Sometimes it takes a while until it comes up in conversation. None of my villagers has ever pinged me about someone else moving, either. Someone needs to be thinking about moving for them to mention it at all, too.

I don't know which time travelling method you're using but if you explain it, maybe we can help you tweak it to make it safer.

To answer your final question, I'm pretty sure you need to cycle through 16 villagers whenever someone moves out, regardless of whether they've been voided or adopted out. If you don't mind replaying the same day in your other town, you can keep it in the same day (just make sure you don't go past the 6 AM mark either way) to keep the villager in boxes until you've cycled in your main town.