Worker does not work?¶
First open the worker's menu (the workstation, or the carrier with an empty hand) and read its status line. It usually says what is missing. A worker that cannot work also shakes its head with the "no" sound now and then when you are within 8 blocks. If the status does not help, go through this list.
What the status means¶
| Status | What to do |
|---|---|
| Waiting for wages (give them an emerald) | Right-click the worker with an emerald (one per work day). |
| Cannot work (chest or order missing) | Link the chests (lumberjack and farmer: one chest; others: an input and an output) and, at a cutter or the bench, set an order. A lumberjack also shows this when the game rule mob_griefing is off. |
| Waiting: cannot reach the chest | Clear the front of the chest, or move it to where the worker can walk. |
| Waiting: cannot reach the saw / the bench / the blast furnace / the smithing table / the kiln | Clear the front of the workstation. |
| Cannot get to the post / the fletching table / the brewing stand / the cauldron / the grindstone / the enchanting table / the smoker | The worker finds no way to its workstation. Clear a path and a free spot next to it. |
| Waiting: chests are full | Empty the output chests or link another one. |
| Waiting: needs an axe (give them one) | Right-click the lumberjack with an axe. |
| Waiting: no tree found | No natural tree within 24 blocks of the chopping block, or none it can reach. |
| Done for today | The lumberjack has felled 64 logs today. It goes on tomorrow. |
| Waiting for material | The input chests have no material for the order, or not of the selected wood types. |
| Waiting for material: Oak Planks | The carpenter's input chests lack this ingredient (or not enough of it) for one piece. |
| Waiting: no recipe for the order | The carpenter's bench has no recipe for the ordered product (e.g. a data pack removed it). Pick another order. |
| Missing 18× Oak Planks | The carpenter has made what it could of an ordered product (or a stock); for the rest this much is missing in its input chests and the village chests in reach. It shows a red ! above its head until there is more. |
| Stock is full (16/16) | The carpenter has as many products in its output chests as set. Take some out or raise the stock. |
| Order done | Everything ordered is in the output chests. Order more in the Order tab. |
| Waiting: cannot carry more | The carpenter's inventory is full. Make room in the input chests so it can put back what it cannot use. |
| Waiting for the crops to grow | No ripe crops and no empty farmland within 8 blocks of the composter. |
| Waiting: no seeds for the empty farmland (give them some) | Right-click the farmer with seeds (or carrots, potatoes). |
| Waiting: needs a hoe (give them one) | Right-click the farmer with a hoe. |
| Going to bed (a guard in the morning) | Guards work at night and sleep in the morning. |
| Waiting: no arrows (give them some) | Give the guard arrows, or put arrows into its input chest or a village chest. |
| Waiting: needs a bow (give them one) | Give the guard a bow. |
| Waiting: no order | Pick a product at the fletching table (right-click it with an empty hand, tab Order). |
| Waiting for Feather (or another material) | The fletcher's input chests lack it. Arrows need a head (flint, gravel, copper or iron), a stick and a feather. |
| No enchanting table near the lectern | Place an enchanting table within 6 blocks of the librarian's lectern. |
| Waiting for bottles o' enchanting (10 per piece) | The librarian pays with bottles o' enchanting: put some into its input chest or a village chest, or set a lower level at the lectern. |
| Waiting for lapis lazuli (3 per piece) | Put lapis lazuli into its input chest or a village chest. |
| Waiting for something to enchant | Its input chests hold nothing enchantable (enchanted things it leaves alone). |
| Waiting for Iron Ingot (or Stick, ...) | The weaponsmith's input chests lack material for one piece of its order. |
| Waiting: no recipe for the order (weaponsmith) | No crafting recipe makes the ordered tool (a data pack removed it). Pick another order. |
| Waiting for Leather (or Paper, Red Dye, ...) | The tanner's input chests lack it. Leather can also be rabbit hide or rotten flesh; dyed armor needs the dye of the color set at the cauldron. |
| No water in the cauldron (needs a bucket and water nearby) | Give the tanner a bucket, with water within 16 blocks of the cauldron, or fill the cauldron yourself. |
| Tanning, done in 3 min | Rotten flesh is tanning in the cauldron and nothing else is left to do. |
| Waiting for Glass Bottle (or another material) | The apothecary's input chests lack it: glass bottles or glass, or an ingredient of the next brewing step. |
| No brewing recipe leads to the order | No chain of brewing steps from a water bottle makes the ordered potion (with data packs or other mods, some potions only come from other sources). Order another potion. |
| Waiting for blaze powder | The brewing stand has no fuel left. Put blaze powder into the apothecary's input chest. |
| No water near the brewing stand | No water within 8 blocks of the brewing stand, or no bank next to it to stand on. |
| Waiting: the brewing stand is in use | Someone else brews at the brewing stand, or it holds items the apothecary cannot carry. |
| Waiting: no water near the barrel | No water (at least a small pond) within 16 blocks of the barrel, or no bank next to it to stand on. |
| Cannot get to the water | The fisher cannot walk to the bank it picked. Make a path, or move the barrel. |
| Waiting: needs a fishing rod (give them one) | Right-click the fisher with a fishing rod. |
| Waiting for the herd to grow | The butcher's herds are as big as set, or the young ones still have to grow up. |
| Waiting: no animals near the smoker | No cows, pigs, chickens or rabbits within 12 blocks of the smoker. |
| Waiting: no feed to breed the animals (give them some) | A kind has fewer animals than the herd size. Give the butcher their food (wheat, carrots, seeds, ...) or put it into an input chest. |
| Waiting: needs a sword or an axe (give them one) | Right-click the butcher with a sword or an axe. |
| Waiting for the wool to grow back | Every sheep around the loom is sheared, and the herd is as big as set. Sheep need grass to grow their wool back. |
| Waiting: no sheep near the loom | No sheep within 12 blocks of the loom. Bring two and the shepherd breeds more. |
| Waiting: no wheat to breed the sheep (give them some) | There are fewer sheep than the herd size. Right-click the shepherd with wheat, or set the herd size lower. |
| Waiting: needs shears (give them some) | Right-click the shepherd with shears. |
| Waiting for something to smelt | The smith's input chests have nothing the blast furnace can smelt. |
| Waiting for fuel | Put coal, charcoal or other fuel into the smith's input chests. |
| Waiting for tools to repair | The smith at the smithing table finds no worn tool in the village chests near it and nothing damaged in its input chests. Nothing to do. |
| Waiting for Iron Ingot to repair with | Put the material into the input chests of the smithing table (iron ingots, diamonds, planks, ...). |
| Waiting for something to fire | The kiln operator's input chests have nothing the kiln can fire, or nothing for the picked product. |
| Stock is full (16/16) at a kiln | The output chests hold as many of the product as set. Take some out or raise the stock. |
| Waiting: no ring of string at the stake | Lay a closed ring of string that touches the pit stake. The stake's overview says what is wrong with the ring. |
| Waiting: The pit is too big (…) and other ring problems | The ring at the stake is no pit yet: too big, not closed or too uneven. Hold string to see the strings that are wrong in red. Make the ring smaller or mend it; how big a pit may be grows with the pit digger's level. |
| Waiting: the string ring is broken | A string of the ring is gone. Put it back where it was, or lay a new closed ring at the stake. |
| Waiting: needs a shovel / a pickaxe / ladders (give them ...) | Right-click the pit digger with it. It needs ladders once the pit is deeper than one block. |
| Waiting: needs planks for the floor / logs for the pillars (give them some) | The pit is deeper than 8 blocks and gets storeys. Give the pit digger planks or logs, or put them into a village chest. |
| Waiting: needs a better pickaxe | Only blocks are left that its pickaxe cannot mine (e.g. diamond ore with a stone pickaxe). Give it a better one. |
| Waiting: water or lava in the pit | Only blocks next to water or lava are left. Remove the liquid, then it digs on. |
| Pit finished, some pillars stay | Blocks it does not dig (builds, logs) and everything under them stay. |
| Waiting: cannot reach the pit at x y z | It found no way to the block at these coordinates, e.g. because of pillars or steps it cannot climb. It tries again after a while. |
| Waiting: the ladder is blocked | Something is in the ladder column or on the string above it, so the pit digger cannot climb. Clear the ladder column from the exit down to the bottom. |
| Waiting: the pit is not loaded | Part of the ring lies in chunks that are not loaded, because no player is near enough. Stay closer to the pit. |
| Waiting: no tunnel picked | Click Pick tunnel at the mining bench, then right-click the side of the block where the tunnel starts. |
| Waiting: the tunnel is too far from players (not loaded) | The end of the tunnel lies in chunks that are not loaded. Go closer, the miner goes on by itself. |
| Waiting: the tunnel is blocked at x y z | A block the miner does not dig (planks, rails, a chest of a mineshaft, bricks) is in the way. Take it away. |
| Waiting: needs cobblestone to seal off water or lava | Give the miner some cobblestone. Afterwards it keeps 16 of what it digs. |
| Tunnel finished | Make the tunnel longer with +, or pick a new one. |
| Waiting for goods to sell | The shop assistant's input chests are empty. |
| Waiting: nobody nearby buys these goods | No villager with a job within 24 blocks of the trading counter buys anything from the input chests for emeralds. Check their trades, or put other goods in. |
| Waiting: the buyers are sold out until they restock | The buyers' trades are used up. Villagers restock at their workstation during the day. |
| Nothing to carry, strolling around | All sources of the carrier are empty, or the targets are full. |
| Stuck: cannot get anywhere | The worker is in a hole, boxed in or behind a fence. After a minute it is brought back to its workstation (a carrier: to the source of its first route). If it stays stuck, clear a free spot next to the workstation or dig it out. |
| Sleeping, Free time, Chatting ... | Not work time. Workers work from the morning to the afternoon. |
Checklist¶
Every worker¶
- Is it work time? Workers only work from the morning to the afternoon. At other times the status shows sleeping, free time, ...
- Does it carry an emerald? The menu shows its emeralds next to the status. If not, right-click the worker with emeralds.
- Can it reach the chests? Workers walk to the front of a chest. Blocked fronts, fences, water or big height differences stop them.
- Thrown items stay on the ground? Workers only pick up thrown items while the
game rule
mob_griefingis on, and only what they still want. Right-click the worker with them instead. - Still assigned? The menu of the workstation shows its worker; Free means nobody works there. A free station within 48 blocks is taken by the next hired villager without a job; use Assign to pick one.
Lumberjack¶
- At least one chest linked.
- It carries an axe (right-click it with one).
- Natural trees within 24 blocks of the chopping block. Trees with player-placed leaves or on stone are ignored.
- Game rule
mob_griefingis on. - Not already at 64 logs today.
Sawyer, stone sawyer, carpenter¶
- An order is set (the order box below the result slot is not empty).
- At least one input and one output chest.
- The input chest has material for the order of the selected wood types.
- Carpenter: the stock limit is not reached yet. For a carpenter the material of all input chests together must be enough for at least one piece.
Farmer¶
- At least one chest linked (right-click the composter with an empty hand).
- It carries an emerald and a hoe.
- Farmland with crops within 8 blocks of the composter. The farmer does not till.
- Seeds for empty farmland (right-click it with some).
Fisher¶
- A chest linked (the Chests tab above the barrel screen).
- It carries an emerald and a fishing rod.
- Water within 16 blocks of the barrel, with a bank it can stand on.
- For boat trips: a boat, open water (7 × 7, two deep) within 32 blocks, and Row out in a boat switched on.
Butcher¶
- An output chest linked (the Chests tab above the smoker screen).
- It carries an emerald and a sword or an axe.
- Animals within 12 blocks of the smoker, close enough to the fence to reach them (3 blocks).
- Feed, if it should breed them; coal or charcoal, if it should smoke the meat.
Shepherd¶
- At least one chest linked (the Chests tab above the loom screen).
- It carries an emerald and shears.
- Sheep within 12 blocks of the loom, close enough to the fence to reach them (3 blocks).
- Wheat, if it should breed them.
Smith¶
- An input and an output chest linked (the Chests tab above the blast furnace screen).
- Something to smelt and fuel in the input chests.
- At a smithing table: an input chest linked, with the repair material in it.
Pit digger¶
- The overview shows the size of the pit: the ring of string is closed and touches the stake. Hold string to see the pit's outline, or the strings that are wrong in red.
- At least one chest linked.
- It carries a shovel, a pickaxe and ladders; for a pit deeper than 8 blocks also planks and logs.
- Not already at 160 blocks today.
Kiln operator¶
- An input and an output chest linked (the Chests tab above the kiln screen).
- Something the kiln fires and fuel in the input chests. With a product picked, only what makes that product counts.
Shop assistant¶
- An input and an output chest linked.
- Villagers with jobs within 24 blocks of the trading counter whose trades buy the goods for emeralds (not hired workers, not nitwits).
Carrier¶
- At least one route.
- Something is in a source, and the target has room for it.
- The carrier still has its basket (it shows on the villager).
Still stuck?¶
Please report it with a screenshot of the menu and your setup, see Beta notes.