Block Undefined in Array of Blocks and Unable to Load Edit View for Document

[58bits]

Describe the Bug

A user working on a document that contained an array of blocks lost access to the document as a block became undefined (possibly while reordering blocks).

The problem was recently posted to Discord - https://discord.com/channels/967097582721572934/1102950643259424828/1326859801761939477 . Another user there (@JannikZed) also described having the same issue.

Attached is an image that shows the state of the field in the document - Object for block 6 (array index position 7) is now undefined.

We then receive the following server error:

ERROR: Block with type "undefined" was found in block data, but no block with that type is defined in the config for field with schema path pages.content.

The user is then unable to edit the document - receiving a blank document edit screen - as shown below...

Link to the code that reproduces this issue

https://github.com/payloadcms/payload

Reproduction Steps

Apologies for the link above - we've not immediately been able to reproduce this however it results in the loss of data, and was confirmed as an issue independently by a second user in Discord (@JannikZed) and so I felt this was serious enough to warrant the issue here.

Even if the issue can't be immediately resolved, I was wondering if it might be possible to more defensively code for block rendering, so that only the missing / undefined block show's as an error. The user would still be able to access the rest of the document - optionally removing the undefined block so that they can continue working on the document (despite the loss of data in the undefined block).

Hope this helps.

Which area(s) are affected? (Select all that apply)

area: core

Environment Info

Payload: v3.15.0
Node.js: v22.13.0 (LTS)

[58bits]

Another user in Discord - @fryght_ - has also experienced this. That makes three of us so far.

[58bits]

Was taking a look at this today. It might help if addFieldStatePromises.ts didn't throw an exception for an undefined block - here...

payload/packages/ui/src/forms/fieldSchemasToFormState/addFieldStatePromise.ts

Line 361 in 9c29541

throw new Error(

...but rather substituted the undefined block for an error placeholder. That way the page / edit form will at least render for the blocks that are okay.

@denolfe @AlessioGr @paulpopus @jacobsfletch - thoughts? Hope you don't mind me tagging you guys here, but three people have reported this error, and it results in a loss of data. The suggestion above doesn't solve the error - but at least allows the user to see the problematic block , with an option to remove it and recreate a new one.

[58bits]

Possibly related? #8961

[phucbm]

I got the same error when changing the slug of a block, the page with that block will be inaccessible. This would be a nightmare in production.

[ggaidelevicius]

Possibly related? #8961

Could be but I still think it would be a good idea in general for block types that aren't found to give some sort of notification to the user rather than preventing a document from loading entirely.

Currently finding it very frustrating when deprecating block types, and as you mentioned, this makes it a nightmare to deal with in production.

[58bits]

Possibly related? #8961

Could be but I still think it would be a good idea in general for block types that aren't found to give some sort of notification to the user rather than preventing a document from loading entirely.

Currently finding it very frustrating when deprecating block types, and as you mentioned, this makes it a nightmare to deal with in production.

I was going to take a stab at updating the code linked to above - with an error block placeholder swapped for the undefined block - instead of throwing an error and bailing on the 'good' blocks, but I just haven't had the time.

@jacobsfletch I know you're super busy as well, but as a first step is there someone on the team there that might be able to try this?

[sideral]

I just wanted to join the users who have experienced this problem. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to reproduce it consistently, but it's happening so often that my team reported 4 broken pages yesterday (in a 20 page website). I can say that it's not necessarily related to changing the slug of a block as I haven't done that, it just happened to me again just by using Payload.

I was in Payload 3.19.0 until two days ago and it wasn't happening, it started happening when upgrading to 3.24.0. Thanks for your help!

[tjazsilovsek]

It is happening to us also. It would be nice to ignore such blocks.

[jacobsfletch]

Is anyone able to reproduce this on 3.32.0?