bevyengine/bevy · error · EntityNotSpawnedError

Entity despawned: {0} Note that interacting with a despawned

Error message

Entity despawned: {0}
Note that interacting with a despawned entity is the most common cause of this error but there are others

What it means

Display/label message for EntityValidButNotSpawnedError: the entity id itself is valid (correct generation) but its index currently has no live location — it was despawned. The note clarifies that although despawn is the most common cause, any interaction with a freed-but-valid index can surface this error. The Display body can name the despawning location when track_location is enabled.

Source

Thrown at crates/bevy_ecs/src/entity/mod.rs:1163

impl fmt::Display for EntityValidButNotSpawnedError {
    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> fmt::Result {
        let entity = self.entity;
        match self.location.into_option() {
            Some(location) => write!(f, "The entity with ID {entity} is not spawned; its index was last despawned by {location}."),
            None => write!(
                f,
                "The entity with ID {entity} is not spawned; enable `track_location` feature for more details."
            ),
        }
    }
}

/// An error that occurs when a specified [`Entity`] is expected to be valid and spawned but is not.
/// Represents an error of either [`InvalidEntityError`] (when the entity is invalid) or [`EntityValidButNotSpawnedError`] (when the [`EntityGeneration`] is correct but the [`EntityIndex`] is not spawned).
#[derive(thiserror::Error, Copy, Clone, Debug, Eq, PartialEq)]
pub enum EntityNotSpawnedError {
    /// The entity was invalid.
    #[error("Entity despawned: {0}\nNote that interacting with a despawned entity is the most common cause of this error but there are others")]
    Invalid(#[from] InvalidEntityError),
    /// The entity was valid but was not spawned.
    #[error("Entity not yet spawned: {0}\nNote that interacting with a not-yet-spawned entity is the most common cause of this error but there are others")]
    ValidButNotSpawned(#[from] EntityValidButNotSpawnedError),
}

impl EntityNotSpawnedError {
    /// The entity that did not exist or was not spawned.
    pub fn entity(&self) -> Entity {
        match self {
            EntityNotSpawnedError::Invalid(err) => err.entity,
            EntityNotSpawnedError::ValidButNotSpawned(err) => err.entity,
        }
    }
}

#[derive(Copy, Clone, Debug)]
struct EntityMeta {

View on GitHub (pinned to 396ca72708)

Solutions

1. Treat the entity as gone: stop using the handle and re-acquire it if it is respawned
2. Guard accesses with query results or Entities::contains instead of assuming liveness
3. Enable the track_location feature during debugging to learn where the entity was despawned

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at crates/bevy_ecs/src/entity/mod.rs:1163 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of bevyengine/bevy@396ca72708 (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cf956252837a7754. Report an issue: GitHub.