🤔Troubleshooting

Knowing how to troubleshoot is a rare and valuable skill to have. Here are some methods for tracking down pesky issues in your own app that can be excellent strategies to have in your toolbelt.

Skill Level: Beginner to Expert

Before You Begin

• Be patient and persevere when troubleshooting - stick with it! You can do it!

• Troubleshooting issues and problems is a part of building apps!

• Don't be afraid of failure or messing up - that's why we have the undo shortcut!

Walkthrough

Workflows We Love at Adalo

The Unstuck Map

The Art of Troubleshooting

Tips and Tricks

The art of troubleshooting is one that can be applied to many different areas of life. You can also use the skill of troubleshooting to help you figure out bugs or issues with your Adalo apps! Below are some tips and tricks we use at Adalo to help solve problems!

Clearly define the problem.

It always helps to write a clear statement of what is going wrong and what the intended behavior should be.

Don't be afraid to ask lots of questions!

Asking questions is the foundation for good troubleshooting. Don't be afraid to ask questions, even if the question seems silly, non-applicable, or already answered.To get better answers, you MUST ask questions.

Change one thing at a time.

If you go trying to enact a bunch of solutions at once, it makes it difficult to determine what effect each change has on the outcome. Consider making one small change at a time and then test after each one to see if the problem is fixed.

Try a different order or placement for things.

You never know what effect simply changing the order, placement, or flow can have on the outcome.

Ask questions about the system flow.

Many times when issues arise, it helps to ask questions about the flow in your app such as "Where is this data coming from?", "Where is the data going?", "What might be stopping this from working?", "What is the pathway the user is taking through the app?"

Identify potential problem areas or areas where your knowledge is fuzzy.

You might have heard it said that sometimes we don't know what we don't know. Simply identifying gaps in our own knowledge can help send us on the right path to finding a solution.

Do research on specific areas you suspect may be causing the issue.

Sometimes it helps to identify potential problem areas and then do research in the Adalo Forum or Adalo Help Docs to see if there's any information missing from your analysis of the problem.

Even if the idea is crazy or you're tempted to dismiss a solution, try it anyway.

If the solution seems far-fetched or unlikely to work, try it anyway. You might be pleasantly surprised. At the very least you'll know what doesn't work!

Try to reproduce the issue with reduced complexity.

At Adalo we use reduced test case apps all the time to isolate an issue from the other components or screens. Usually a test case app only does what the problem is, nothing more.

Check for prerequisites.

Did you do everything necessary in order for this to work? What might you be leaving out?

Is there a working example you can copy or evaluate?

It may help to try and find or create an app that already does what you're trying to accomplish. We have plenty of app templates and cloneable kits that can help you do that!

Try again from the beginning.

Many times it's easy to skip a step or miss an important data point. Many times it helps to just reset everything and start over with a clean slate.

Know when to ask for help.

You can always reach out in the Adalo Forum and ask our expansive community of knowledgable makers.

If you're still having trouble, consider hiring an Adalo Expert.

Help

You can also benefit from checking out "Most Common Mistakes In Adalo While Using Data" course from The Adalo App Academy.