Unable to change scene back to main menu node

[craggy harness]

So basically, I have a very simple game of a main menu node and a level node. I can switch effortlessly from the main menu node to the level node by preloading the level node and using it with change_scene_to_packed(), however, I can't do the same when transitioning from the level node to the main menu node. I have a button that, when pressed, emits a signal that then triggers the function to go to the main menu. the problem is I'm always met with this debugger error:

I've tried using change_scene_to_file() with the scene path to the node but that also returns the same error. It's really weird...

[royal geyser]

Can you open your menu scene in the editor?

[craggy harness]

sure, here is the scene with the tree

here is the code

here is the custom_change_scene_tp()

I can assure you this isn't the issue as when switching back from the level I've not used this and instead used bare functions.

[royal geyser]

That is weird... can you try using that to switch to an empty scene?

[craggy harness]

an empty scene as in it doesn't even have a node in it?

I can't create something like that. maybe just a regular node?

[royal geyser]

You can try switching to any scene. We just need to check if only your menu is affected.

[craggy harness]

I can and it works fine

the autoload isn't the issue, from inside the level itself I can't call any of the bare functions that are used to switch scenes, let me demonstrate with a video

Oh wait, from inside the level I can change to the empty scene I just created

I only can't switch to main menu

[royal geyser]

Does your menu have other dependencies?

[craggy harness]

can you elaborate on dependencies? I don't think it does...

[royal geyser]

If you don't mind sharing, what does your main menu script look like?

[craggy harness]

main menu script

TransitionEffect is an autoload

let me try commenting all the code out and starting from the level itself

it works that way

something in the code must be interfering

[royal geyser]

Is your level scene preloading your main menu?

[craggy harness]

nope

this is odd but I think it has to do with all the preloading that's going on

let me instead use switch_to_file and see if that fixes it

by the way, the level wasn't preloading the main menu node, it was the pause menu node which is a child of the level node that was preloading it:

[royal geyser]

This is the closest thing I can find relating to your issue.
Apparently, scenes can also run into trouble with cyclic references if they preload one another.

https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues/72921#issuecomment-1423244325

[craggy harness]

it works now

[craggy harness]

ah thanks. I'll check that out.

[royal geyser]

nice! good luck with your project!