Tile entity has amnesia?

[the]

So I have a tile entity of a container block, and on the client side at least, it seems to think everything is 0, false, etc.

1.) For instance, I have the debug code
 

IBlockState state = world.getBlockState(pos);
if (state.getBlock() == ModBlocks.MY_BLOCK) { // you'd think this would always be true
	return state.getValue(MyBlock.ACTIVATED);
}
MyMod.LOGGER.info(pos.getX() + " " + pos.getY() + " " + pos.getZ() + " " + state.getBlock().getUnlocalizedName()); // debug
return false;

which not only always prints something to the logger, but the thing that it prints is actually
 

0 0 0 tile:bedrock

 

(or sometimes tile:air, depending on what is at 0,0,0)

 

The value of pos is not being changed/overwritten anywhere in my code.

2.) As well, the tile entity resets to default whenever the world is reloaded, forgetting all of the items inside it. While I am setting NBT as follows:
 

@Override
public void readFromNBT(NBTTagCompound compound) {
    super.readFromNBT(compound);
    if (compound.hasKey("ITEMS")) {
        itemStackHandler.deserializeNBT((NBTTagCompound) compound.getTag("ITEMS"));
    }
    if (compound.hasKey("previousRedstoneState")) {
        previousRedstoneState = compound.getBoolean("previousRedstoneState");
    }
}

@Override
public NBTTagCompound writeToNBT(NBTTagCompound compound) {
    super.writeToNBT(compound);
    compound.setTag("ITEMS", itemStackHandler.serializeNBT());
    compound.setBoolean("previousRedstoneState", previousRedstoneState);
    return compound;
}

my GUI for the block does not display the correct previousRedstoneState. It does get the items right, but only until world exit.

3.) I have tried sending packets using the MinecraftByExample method, in case the GUI was a server/client issue:
 

@Nullable
@Override
public SPacketUpdateTileEntity getUpdatePacket() {
    return new SPacketUpdateTileEntity(getPos(), getBlockMetadata(), getUpdateTag());
}

@Override
public void onDataPacket(NetworkManager net, SPacketUpdateTileEntity pkt) {
    handleUpdateTag(pkt.getNbtCompound());
}

@Override
public NBTTagCompound getUpdateTag() {
    NBTTagCompound nbtTagCompound = new NBTTagCompound();
    writeToNBT(new NBTTagCompound());
    return nbtTagCompound;
}

@Override
public void handleUpdateTag(NBTTagCompound tag) {
    this.readFromNBT(tag);
}

This updates the GUI text that corresponds to the NBT, but not to the blockstate. As well, if I store a byte array in the NBT that is being created from analyzing the inventory of a neighbouring block, that part of the NBT does not update correctly.

 

I can supply additional context as necessary.

How can I medicate my poor block?

[the]

The "pos" is the field of the tile entity class that is inherited from TileEntity (and returned by this.getPos(), which using instead does not change the problem, and which I would have originally used more formally if 1 was not debug code).

The issue is happening with the fields of the block's tile entity class.

[the]

Changing the body of getUpdateTag to

return new NBTTagCompound();

still produces "0 0 0 tile:bedrock".

As for writing both items and previousRedstoneState to the NBT, I'm following both the capability system outlined in this tutorial and the method used by TileEntityNote of remembering if a block is currently being powered so that it does not trigger again upon world reload. I'm still finding my way around modding and I'd very much appreciate if you have a more elegant way to handle NBT, though I will optimize after I have the block working as intended.

The rest of my code for the tile entity class is linked here (and is pretty much a combination of that tutorial and vanilla's previousRedstoneState as well).

[the]

I understand you are talking about what is being shared over the network, not what is being saved to the disk, though Minecraft modding is new to me - should I create a separate pair of read/write NBT functions that only do the redstone state, and then use those in the packet functions in place of readFromNBT/writeToNBT?

Also, is "new NBTTagCompound()" not an empty NBTTagCompound? I was under the impression that it was.