How to debug errors in Bubble

Open your app in the Bubble editor and click Preview in the top-right corner. When your app opens in preview mode, you will see a debugger toolbar at the bottom of the page. Click the 'Step-by-step' button on the left side of this toolbar. Now trigger any workflow — for example, click a button. The debugger pauses at each action and shows you: which workflow fired, what event triggered it, and each action in sequence. Click the 'Next' arrow to step through actions one at a time. Watch the 'Properties' panel on the right to inspect element values at each step.

While in the debugger, click on any element in your app preview. The debugger panel expands to show that element's current properties: its data source value, visibility state, conditional evaluations, and Custom State values. This is critical for diagnosing 'why is this element not showing the right data' issues. You can also hover over any dynamic expression in the Properties panel to see its evaluated value. If a Text element shows blank, inspect it — the debugger will reveal whether the expression returns empty or if a condition is hiding the element.

In the Bubble editor, click the Logs tab in the left sidebar. This opens the Server Logs view. You will see a chronological list of server-side events including backend workflow executions, scheduled workflows, database trigger events, and API calls. Each log entry shows a timestamp, the workflow name, and a status (success or error). Click any entry to expand it and see detailed information: which actions ran, what data was passed, and if an error occurred, the error message. Use the filter options at the top to narrow logs by type or time range.

In the Bubble editor, look for the Issue Checker icon in the top toolbar — it looks like a warning triangle. Click it to open the Issues panel. Bubble scans your entire app and lists every problem it finds: missing data sources, broken references to deleted elements, invalid dynamic expressions, and incomplete workflow actions. Each issue has a description and a clickable link that takes you directly to the problematic element or workflow. Fix issues from top to bottom — some issues cascade, so fixing one may resolve others automatically.

One of the most common Bubble bugs is actions running before previous actions finish. For example, creating a record in Step 1 and searching for it in Step 2 — the search may not find it because Step 1 has not committed yet. To fix this, never use 'Do a search for' to find data you just created. Instead, use 'Result of step 1' to reference the newly created thing directly. In the workflow editor, when configuring Step 2, click 'Insert dynamic data' and select 'Result of step 1'. This guarantees you are referencing the exact thing created in the previous action.

Go to the Workflow tab and click to add a new event. Scroll to General and select 'An unhandled error occurs'. This event fires whenever any workflow encounters an error that is not caught elsewhere. In the actions for this event, add 'Show an alert' with a user-friendly message like 'Something went wrong. Please try again.' You can also log the error: create a new thing (Type: ErrorLog) with fields for 'Current workflow error's code' and 'Current workflow error's message'. This gives you a database record of every error for later review.