City-states disappearing out of nowhere?

[golden shore]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding a mechanic, but there's been a few times now where an independent power I was befriending just disappeared out of nowhere, and I know for a fact they weren't dispersed because I had troops near them protecting them.

The only reason I think this could maybe be a mechanic I'm unaware of is because the common theme is I have troops in their borders when this happens, which makes me think there's an alternate way to disperse them aside from clicking the "Disperse" button?

However, this seems to often (but maybe not always?) happen the turn they're meant to become a city-state and when that's the case, I still get a notification that they became a city-state but when I click on it, it sends me out of bounds and the whole thing looks very glitchy. You can also still partially their borders where they used to be, it's very strange, so I feel like this isn't intended.

[opal wedge]

This happened once in a multiplayer game of mine. One human player was befriending it, then the game crashed. Some time after the crash, we noticed that city state was nowhere to be found (though one of its units was still wandering around where it used to be). The independent settlement was nicely sandwiched between the coast and two human players; no angry AI anywhere near killing it.

[fleet dust]

They all disappeared during an age change for me. You know, like how all city states in real life vanish every time a new era starts on earth.

[boreal quartz]

I have seen an independent I was a few turns from turning into a city state disappear when nearby river flooded, there were no enemy troops in range of the city.

[muted wharf]

Are you on console? In the PC version at least they're testing a change where they keep the independents around through age transitions. It has some balance issues but it feels a lot better

[boreal quartz]

I am on PC, My experience was within the exploration age. I am sure something happened, maybe a notification of dispersal by foreign powers should happen when you are influencing, so you know it wasn't a bug but deliberate action.

[modest flare]

Multiple times I had city states I was befriending in the Exploration age, that existed in the Antiquity Age, and a few turns later they just disappeared while I was defending them from being disbanded. Some of their border lines still persist, even though the city state itself is gone.
Edit: I’m on PC

[peak agate]

Happened to me also. I managed to catch the specific moment when the independent disappeared and had a scout parked next to it. It was just gone after one turn, no one dispersed it or nothing. Just a notification "Your action befriending X has been canceled".

If an AI disperses an independent you were befriending you get a totally different notification and some influence for then "sparking a diplomatic incident"
I reported it as a bug yesterday as a ticket