Ok I figured out what I was doing wrong please disregard this post

If you want a permanent buff to persist across bars the buff skill must appear in BOTH bars ... if it is not, then they will disappear, that is game design

short term timed buffs will last the set time, even if the ability bar is switched over

requires good choices across the two bars if you want to effectively bar switch in combat (which, in my opinion, should be a skill learned early on ... very important to have two active bars, not just task specific bars that are rarely interchanged in combat)

for example if I want my magelight and flyer to persist between ability bar swaps, both skills need to be on both ability bars, but this still gives me 6 skill slots for other casting (instead of limiting myself to the 3 remainder on just one bar)

In order to keep a buff on, you MUST have it on both bars.

For example, a clan fear will unsummon if you switch to your 2nd ability bar if it is not slotted. Only except to this rule is buffs that are cast into your character (ex. Surge, h ward, etc..)