Stuck on step 2 - exhausted the known bugs and issues guidance already

[David Rothauser]

Hello,

My formMule is getting stuck on (spinning wheel) when I select "Choose source data and set merge type." 

Here are the steps I've taken to solve the problem:

1. I used the known bugs and issues spreadsheet and there are no problems with my headers. 

2. I made a copy of the sheet and encountered the same error. 

3. I created a brand  new test sheet with dummy data and encountered the same error. 

4. I tried opening formMule on a sheet where it's already been installed and functioning and encountered the same error. 

5. I tried opening my sheet on a different device and got the same error. 

Can anyone guide me in resolving this issue? 

Thank you.

David Rothauser

[David Rothauser]

I'm reporting on progress because, although I got formMule to work, I'm mystified by what could have been happening. I'd appreciate any thoughts. Here's what I did next: 

1. I asked a colleague on the same domain to try formMule on the same sheet (it worked for her). 

2. I shared the sheet with my personal gmail address and tried running formMule from there (it worked there). 

3. I tried running formMule on a different sheet in my work domain (it did not work). 

4. I shared that sheet with my personal email account and ran formMule over there (it worked). Then when I tried running formMule on the same sheet in my work domain and it finally worked there. 

So it looks like sharing the sheet in my work domain with my personal gmail account is a way to jump start formMule in my work domain. 

Does anyone have a thought about why this may be happening? Could there be a problem with my domain or my user account? 

Thank you,

David Rothauser

[Bart van Dalfsen]

Hi David,

My default installed browsers are Chrome and FireFox.

And apart from a few Chromebook and ChromeOS devices these ate all Linux machines with sometimes Chromium instead of Chrome because of the cpu architecture. Only one PC with a free for Europeans year of Windows 10 copy is equiped with the oddity of all browers: the 100% copied and totally crappified Edge browser, which comes standard with this OS and is hopelessly integrated to cripple all alternatives.

Reason for summing up my browser collection, and my apologies for not mentioning the here and there installed copies of Opera, Brave and a tor build, but it allows me to quickly test my things in an environment which has not synchronised cookies with certain webservices nor browser-addons or -extensions which may cause my webapps yo malfunction.

In your list there was no mention of using another brower nor the private or incognito browsing modus.

I know this brings the hassle of having to login an additional time but without the benefits of a synchronizing setup in case of a other than Chrome browsers.

It may not even be this circumvents the problem but i've run into many occasions where another online instance of my sheet apparently caused a conflict which lef to an infinite retry of the FormMule software to gather all info it needs before it starts to draw the menu or opening screen.

Other oddities causing my setup to loop indefinitely like yours where changes to Timestamp column in which the forms log the date of entry. My advice: add extra columns for filtering or data enrichment but try to keep column with origin data untouched and unformatted so you can spot the out-of-the-ordinary more quickly.

A big issues happening to me in one occassion was a change in the configured timezone within the sheetsettings (// menu / file / settings)

Changing it from my originally configurated Central European Timezone setting, UTC +1hour in the default wintertime stopped both FormMule to run and not to open the setup screens anymore.

So there is plenty of things which screw-up something causing FM to loop indefinitely and unfortunately there is no option either to ask FM to dump all msgs in a sheettab for debugging purposes.

So try to close all instances of the sheet,

make sure you use the same Google account to enter the FM setup menus as you used when FM was configured originally fot this sheet.

And no, because of undesired side effects you cannot transfer a sheet from one account to another account.

With FM you then have to redo most of the work rendering a complete new rebuild the same amount of work.

Therefor it's recommended use a functional account and not one a named person account, because you may retire or transferred and need to transfer it to another person to perform the role you had.

And finally k.i.s.s. as much as can.

The less simple, the more it becomes your own problem.

Do you recall the last time all was well?

You probably can restore the copy to that point in time using the version history feature, but as a last resort to prove the later changes broke the config it is an option.

Anyway, i hope you have enough ideas to test and deduce your issues.

And if tou find the culprit, please let us know by a reply.

We love to learn too ;)

Cheers, Bart

Op wo 21 jan 2026, 21:36 schreef David Rothauser <david.r...@gmail.com>:

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[Kate Heinecke]

I'm having the same issue.  I can't get to step 3 Build and Preview templates with NEW projects.  It's find on existing projects.  But new projects just spin and spin and I've checked my headers too for any of the characters that have been causing issues.  I'm going to try with my personal account next I guess...Frustrating because we use form mule for SO MANY processes!

[Kate Heinecke]

I finally figured it out.  It wasn't a bad header, I had a blank column (header) before the last column.  Removing the blank column did the trick!