# 502 and then empty forum after \`./launcher rebuild app\`
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/502-and-then-empty-forum-after-launcher-rebuild-app/226557
**Category:** Self-hosting
**Created:** [May 9, 2022, 3:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/502-and-then-empty-forum-after-launcher-rebuild-app/226557 "2022-05-09T15:12:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jtooker](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jtooker)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2022, 3:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/502-and-then-empty-forum-after-launcher-rebuild-app/226557/1 "2022-05-09T15:12:29Z")
**TL;DR:**
I ran `./launcher rebuild app` and then my forum broke. The problem ended up being a theme component that had been working. I don’t really understand the issue beyond that, but I’m posting in case my experience may be helpful to others.
**Setup**
I’m hosting discourse on a Digital Ocean Discourse Droplet (Ubuntu). I do not know what version my forum was on, but it was a fairly update beta (within the last week). It is now at 2.9.0.beta4.
**Problem**
After updating my `containers/app.yml` file, I ran `./launcher rebuild app`. After the script completed, my forum came up with a 502 server error. Then it came up ‘empty’ as shown in this screenshot:
I undid my `app.yml` change and rebuilt with no luck. Clicking buttons didn’t seem to do anything, but maybe duplicate another ‘box’ (there are two in that screenshot, after clicking ‘+ New Topic’ there were three).
When I visited in a private browser window, my forum seemed to work: it requires a log-in. So it seemed something was working.
I finally stumbled upon how to view your forum in [safe mode](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-use-discourse-safe-mode/53504). It appeared to work when disabling everything.
**Solution**
[Safe mode](https://meta.discourse.org/t/53504?silent=true) without disabling themes did not work but worked with all plugins. This lead me to **disable the [Topics Thumbnail](https://github.com/discourse/discourse-topic-thumbnails) theme component** and then everything started working again. I am using the [Graceful](https://github.com/discourse/graceful) theme.
If I reenable this theme component, my site breaks as described above.
_ **Updated Solution** _
There was a bug with Topics Thumbnail and [it is now fixed](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-list-thumbnails-theme-component/150602/246).
**Last Thoughts**
I do not understand the 502 error I got. Perhaps my server is slow or the container running Discourse was not fully up by the time the launcher script was finished. Unless my forum was out of date and launcher automatically pulls updates, I’m not sure why my theme component started causing issues.
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2022, 4:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/502-and-then-empty-forum-after-launcher-rebuild-app/226557/2 "2022-05-09T16:07:34Z")
> [@jtooker](#):
>
> I do not understand the 502 error I got.
That’s expected for up to about a minute after the server restarts.
So I think your only issue was that Topics Thumbnail broke your site display. The forum wasn’t so much “empty” as “invisible”, I think. 🙂
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### Author:  [@jtooker](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jtooker)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2022, 4:10pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/502-and-then-empty-forum-after-launcher-rebuild-app/226557/3 "2022-05-09T16:10:18Z")
> That’s expected for up to about a minute after the server restarts.
Thank you, @pfaffman. That was what I assumed, but I don’t have enough experience/knowledge to do more than assume.
> So I think your only issue was that Topics Thumbnail broke your site display.
I created a bug for this issue (hopefully that was the right place) - seems like there is no way to report a bug on the github page.
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2022, 4:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/502-and-then-empty-forum-after-launcher-rebuild-app/226557/4 "2022-05-09T16:13:12Z")
A better place is in the topic for the theme component. It’s not a discourse bug, so it’s not a #Contribute > Bug.
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### Author:  [@awesomerobot](https://meta.discourse.org/u/awesomerobot)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2022, 8:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/502-and-then-empty-forum-after-launcher-rebuild-app/226557/5 "2022-05-09T20:15:01Z")
Found the problem and fixed here: [Topic List Thumbnails - #246 by awesomerobot](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-list-thumbnails-theme-component/150602/246)
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### Author:  [@awesomerobot](https://meta.discourse.org/u/awesomerobot)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2022, 12:00pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/502-and-then-empty-forum-after-launcher-rebuild-app/226557/6 "2022-05-10T12:00:09Z")
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