empty geometry nodes modifier anywhere in blend file will prevent baking

[psychocozm]

Blender Version: 5.1.2, blender-v5.1-release, 2026-05-18 13:43, ec6e62d40fa9
Addon Version: A FLIP Fluid Simulation Tool for Blender (v1.8.6 Individual Release 2026-03-26)
Addon Build: Individual 416AK
OS: Windows-11-10.0.26200-SP0
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU/PCIe/SSE2 NVIDIA Corporation 4.6.0 NVIDIA 591.55
CPU: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11370H @ 3.30GHz
CPU Threads: 8

If any object in your blend file has a geometry nodes modifier, but isnt actually assigned a geometry node group, it will cause an error report and freeze the bake button, even when the object is not a part of the fluid simulation in any way. It was very hard to find that this was the root cause because the object wasn't connected the simulation, but the error was reproducible.

screenshot of the error code:

screenshot of the bake button's frozen state after getting the error code:

[rlguy]

Thanks for the report! This bug has been fixed for the next FLIP Fluids 1.8.7 to be released on July 14 2026.

Adding a workaround to resolve the error in case anyone else is looking:

Workaround

This error will be triggered if there is an object in the Blend file that contains an uninitialized GeometryNodes modifier:

There are three workarounds that can resolve this error:

• Delete the modifier from the object
• Or disable the modifier in the viewport
• Or initialize the modifier by setting a node group or creating a new node group with the "+ New" operator

To restore the state of the Bake operator, re-load the Blend file.