What causes match-3 input locked after an invalid-swap bounce?

Input is locked when a swap begins but the lock is only cleared in the match-resolution path, so an invalid swap that bounces back never reaches the code that releases the lock.

How do I catch this when it only happens for some players?

Capture it automatically from the player's device with the full stack trace, the device and OS, the build, and a breadcrumb trail of what they did. That turns a vague complaint into a specific, reproducible issue you can fix without owning the hardware it happens on.

How to Fix Match-3 Input Locked After an Invalid-Swap Bounce

Quick answer: Clear the input lock in both branches: after a valid swap fully resolves, and after an invalid swap's bounce-back animation completes.

A board locks input during a swap so players cannot double-act. If an illegal swap bounces back and input stays locked, the unlock only lives in the success path. Release the lock when the bounce finishes too.

How to fix it

1. Lock on swap start

When a swap begins, set an input-locked flag so the player cannot start another swap mid-animation.

2. Unlock on both outcomes

If the swap forms a match, unlock after the cascade fully settles. If it does not, unlock the moment the bounce-back tween completes. Both paths must clear the flag.

3. Use a finally-style guarantee

Where possible, clear the lock in a completion callback that always runs regardless of branch, so no animation path can ever leave input stranded.

Catching the ones you can't reproduce

The hardest version of this to fix is the one you can't reproduce — it only happens on a player's hardware, OS, driver, or save state, under conditions that simply aren't present on your machine. A report that says “it crashed” or “it froze” gives you nothing to act on, so the bug survives release after release while quietly costing you players.

Automatic error capture closes that gap. Each failure arrives with its full stack trace, the device and OS, the build number, and a breadcrumb trail of what the player did right before it broke, so even a failure you have never seen becomes a specific, reproducible issue. Fold identical failures into one signature ranked by how many players each hits, and your worklist sorts itself worst-first instead of arriving as a stream of vague complaints.

This is where a tool like Bugnet earns its place. Its SDK captures every HTML5 error automatically with the full stack trace plus device, OS, memory, build, and game-state context, folds duplicates into one grouped issue with an occurrence count, and ties each to the build it first appeared on — so you fix the problem that hurts the most players first and confirm it is gone when its signature disappears from the next release.

Ship the fix, watch the signature disappear from the next build. That's how you know it's really gone.