Nothing kills momentum faster than watching Bubble’s editor freeze just as you’re about to test something clever. You had the idea, you wrote the workflow, and then the expression builder turned into quicksand. For a few seconds (or minutes), you’re stuck wondering if it’s you or Bubble that just crashed.
The page freezes, your cursor won’t budge, the spinner keeps spinning, and you sit there waiting, hoping it sorts itself out… but it doesn’t. Eventually, you give up and hit refresh, just crossing your fingers you didn’t lose too much progress.
That’s a broken expression. Every Bubble creator runs into them at some point. They’re frustrating, but once you understand why they happen, you’ll not only recover faster but also prevent most of them from showing up in the first place.
What’s Actually Going On?
Bubble.io isn’t a static design tool. It’s interactive, constantly checking and evaluating your expressions while you build. That’s part of what makes it powerful, because you can see how your app will behave with real data even before you hit preview.
But when you create an expression that doesn’t make sense logically, Bubble tries anyway. Instead of failing gracefully, it can get stuck in a loop, endlessly trying to resolve something that can’t be resolved.
That’s when the editor appears frozen…
Think of it like asking someone to calculate two divided by zero. They could try forever, but never arrive at an answer. A broken expression is Bubble’s version of that same impossible request.
Why It’s Always Dynamic Data
Static content is easy. If you set a text box to ‘Hello World,’ Bubble just displays it. However, the moment you add dynamic data, things get complicated. Bubble has to fetch information, process it, and render results in real time. That means if your expression is incomplete or mismatched, the editor can’t finish the task.
Say you’re building a task app. You want a repeating group to show tasks assigned to the current user. So you search for ‘Tasks’ with the constraint ‘Assigned User = Current User.’ That works fine.
Now imagine you accidentally write ‘Assigned User = Current User’s First Name.’ You’ve told Bubble to compare a user object with a text value. That doesn’t compute. Instead of showing an error, the editor hangs trying to reconcile two completely different data types.
This is how quickly a broken expression can sneak into your workflow.
More Scenarios Where It Shows Up
If you think broken expressions only happen with repeating groups, think again. They sneak into all corners of the editor. For example, you may experience it while:
- Doing conditional formatting. You add a rule like ‘when Current Page’s Product’s Price is greater than Current User,’ forgetting that one is a number and the other is a user object. Freeze.
- Setting visibility rules. You set an element to show only when ‘Current User’s Email contains Current User.’ The result? The logic never resolves, and the editor stalls.
- Searching constraints. A marketplace app might filter ‘Products where Seller = Current User’s List of Sellers.’ Comparing a single seller with a list confuses the system.
Each one might look harmless as you’re typing it, but under the hood, Bubble.io is left scratching its head.
The Usual Suspects
Broken expressions don’t come out of nowhere. They usually appear because of a handful of common mistakes:
- Mismatched data types. Feeding text into a number field or comparing a user object with a string.
- Circular references. Expressions that depend on themselves and never resolve.
- Incomplete expressions. Starting a search or query, but never telling Bubble what to return.
- Overly complex nesting. Building a “search within a search within a filter” chain that the editor can’t process on the fly.
Once you learn to spot these, you’ll catch most broken expressions before they cause trouble.
Why It Feels Worse Than It Is
At first, broken expressions feel like random bugs. In reality, they’re just logic traps. The real frustration comes from how disruptive they are.
You lose progress when you refresh. You hesitate to experiment because you don’t want to freeze the editor again. You waste mental energy trying to avoid mistakes instead of freely building. And over time, you might even leave parts of your app unfinished because touching it feels risky.
What should feel like a creative process starts to feel like walking on eggshells, where every click carries the fear of another lockup. That constant second-guessing can quietly drain your momentum and make Bubble feel harder than it really is.
The Good News
The upside is that broken expressions are preventable once you adjust how you build. Think of them less as mysterious bugs and more as signposts telling you to slow down and rethink your expression.
So let’s look at how you can stay ahead of them.
How to Avoid Broken Expressions
The first rule is simple…
Match your data types. If an input expects a number, make sure you’re giving it a number. If a constraint expects a user, don’t give it text.
The second is to finish your expressions. Don’t leave queries hanging halfway. ‘Do a search for Orders’ without specifying which field you want to show is just asking for trouble.
Third, test in small steps. Instead of building one long nested expression in a single shot, break it down. Use a temporary text element to test a partial expression, confirm it works, then expand it. If something breaks, you know exactly where.
And finally, offload heavy logic. Instead of building complex expressions directly into elements, move that logic into custom states or backend workflows. Let Bubble.io process the results behind the scenes, then display the simpler output on the page.
Database Design Matters
Something many builders overlook is how database design impacts broken expressions. Poorly structured data almost guarantees messy expressions.
For example, if you store relationships as text lists instead of linking data types directly, you’ll constantly be converting between text and objects. That’s an open invitation for mismatched types.
Or if you model ‘friends’ as two users referencing each other without a clean junction table, you risk circular references that trigger freezes when building filters.
So, the moral of the story is that taking time to plan your database properly not only makes your app faster at runtime, but it also makes the editor more forgiving while you’re building.
When It Still Happens
Even with good habits, the occasional broken expression will slip through. When it does, don’t panic.
Start with a refresh. If that doesn’t work, remove the element causing the problem and rebuild it cleanly. You can also switch browsers or open Bubble.io in incognito to bypass caching conflicts.
And if you’re truly stuck, lean on the Bubble community. Someone has almost certainly run into your exact freeze before, and many solutions are already shared in the forum.
Lessons Learned
Every broken expression is a chance to get sharper at using Bubble. Over time, you’ll start spotting patterns and knowing instinctively where the pitfalls are hiding. What feels like a total disaster the first time will barely register the tenth time because you’ll already know what caused it and how to fix it. That’s the difference between frustration and confidence.
And here’s the part that’s easy to forget when you’re staring at a frozen screen: these freezes don’t mean you’re bad at Bubble. They just mean you’re pushing it and wandering into places where the platform gets a little shaky.
Think of it like learning any craft. The rough drafts, the half-finished versions – they’re not wasted time. They’re the stepping stones.
Of course, if you’d rather skip some of that trial and error, working with a professional Bubble certified agency can smooth the process. They’ve already hit these walls hundreds of times and know the shortcuts, so you can focus on your app’s vision instead of getting stuck in the editor.
Looking Forward
Bubble itself is improving, too. The team has already released updates that make the editor more stable and less likely to hang. We’ll probably see clearer error messages in the future instead of the dreaded frozen screen.
Until then, prevention and quick troubleshooting are your best friends.
Final Thoughts
Broken expressions are annoying, but they don’t have to derail your progress. Once you understand why they happen, you can spot them, prevent them, and recover quickly when they sneak in.
So the next time your editor hangs, don’t let frustration win. Refresh and remember that every Bubble builder has been there. The more you practice, the less intimidating these freezes become, and the more confident you’ll feel navigating them.
In the end, broken expressions aren’t a stop sign. They’re just speed bumps on the road to building better apps. And if you’d rather avoid a bumpy ride altogether, teaming up with a certified Bubble agency can help. They know the platform inside and out, so you can skip the headaches and keep your project moving forward without losing momentum.