How to handle the deleted/update values in dropdown used in data entry?

When dropdown values used in data entry (e.g., Participant, Visit, or Specimen forms) are deleted or updated, OpenSpecimen won’t allow editing the data entry page where that value is used. Fix the dropdown values first to enable editing.

When this happens, the user might get an error like below in the os.log files. Where the user can see the values on the overview page, but when editing, it shows blank.

2025-10-09 12:45:35 [taskExecutor-2] ERROR Extraction (RNA)com.krishagni.catissueplus.core.exporter.services.impl.ExportServiceImpl- Error exporting records
java.lang.NullPointerException: null

On Overview Page:

On Clicking Edit:

To fix the issue, follow the given steps:

Re-add previous dropdown values if they were updated or deleted.
Example: Form attached at specimen custom field level: User selected DNA Extraction, later changed to Extraction DNA. Re-add DNA Extraction to allow editing existing samples.
Export existing records to update. Replace with new values in the CSV and run Update using the BO feature.
Delete unwanted values from the form dropdown.