# cell marked detached: why? What does it mean?

**URL:** <https://talk.observablehq.com/t/cell-marked-detached-why-what-does-it-mean/7309>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [November 22, 2022, 10:57am UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/cell-marked-detached-why-what-does-it-mean/7309 "2022-11-22T10:57:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![espinielli](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/espinielli/32/142_2.png) [@espinielli](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/espinielli)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2022, 10:57am UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/cell-marked-detached-why-what-does-it-mean/7309/1 "2022-11-22T10:57:24Z")

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## Detached cell

In the following notebook I get a cell marked `<detached>`  
[https://observablehq.com/d/53f57fbb8e2305ae](https://observablehq.com/d/53f57fbb8e2305ae)

 ![detached](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/observablehq/original/2X/1/1f8e3d510fdf917043b0ebafa92638073698fe29.jpeg)

What does it mean? Why is it?

## Cell with continuous spinning circle

Also if I define my reference cell with `viewof` I get a referring cell that never resolves and get a continuously spinning circle ![Screenshot 2022-11-22 at 11.42.40](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/observablehq/original/2X/3/3b8ab6956ea14ca7956dbbc1dc56e9925ddbc0cf.png)…

 ![spinning circle in cell](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/observablehq/original/2X/d/dab2b73e63ac8d8e857a7d9788f08d1747767a7b.png)

Thanks in advance

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mcmcclur](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/mcmcclur/32/2364_2.png) [@mcmcclur](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/mcmcclur)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2022, 11:44am UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/cell-marked-detached-why-what-does-it-mean/7309/2 "2022-11-22T11:44:05Z")

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> [@espinielli](#):
>
> In the following notebook I get a cell marked `<detached>` …  
> What does it mean?

An HTML element can only appear once in the page. In the context of Observable’s reactive runtime, when the output of a cell is referred to elsewhere, only one can appear. Thus Observable generates a placeholder element that says `<detached>`. if you’d like multiple copies of the same HTML element, you can always clone it. Thus, in your `logouse` cell, you might have `${logo.cloneNode(true)}`, rather than just `${logo}`.

The reason an element can only appear once is due to the internal representation of the webpage called the DOM, which has a tree structure by design. One characteristic of a tree is that each node has only one parent. The consequence is you can’t place it in two spots at the same time. This is a general HTML/Javascript issue and not at all unique to Observable. I do think you see it arise here more often due to the reactive environment and attempts to reuse output as you have done.

> [@espinielli](#):
>
> Also if I define my reference cell with `viewof` I get a referring cell that never resolves and get a continuously spinning circle ![Screenshot 2022-11-22 at 11.42.40](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/observablehq/original/2X/3/3b8ab6956ea14ca7956dbbc1dc56e9925ddbc0cf.png)…

I can’t replicate that behavior in either Chrome or Firefox on my Mac. It’s worth pointing out though that `logo2` and `viewof logo2` are two different things. Typically, `viewof logo2` would be an HTML element and `logo2` would be just an associated value. As a result, I wouldn’t expect the use of `logo2` to work, if you want to replicate the image `viewof logo2`.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![espinielli](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/espinielli/32/142_2.png) [@espinielli](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/espinielli)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2022, 12:29pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/cell-marked-detached-why-what-does-it-mean/7309/3 "2022-11-22T12:29:01Z")

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Thanks for the explanation about `<detached>`.

So you do not see the spinning circle for the cell `logoUse2` in the notebook, don’t you?  
I am using Brave but I see it also in Safari.

Here is a screenshot:

 ![Screenshot 2022-11-22 at 13.24.34](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/observablehq/original/2X/6/674c935ae8a12259a0a442b29063fdcd41ba3f79.png)

It continuously circle and nothing is shown…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mcmcclur](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/mcmcclur/32/2364_2.png) [@mcmcclur](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/mcmcclur)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2022, 1:02pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/cell-marked-detached-why-what-does-it-mean/7309/4 "2022-11-22T13:02:04Z")

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> [@espinielli](#):
>
> So you do not see the spinning circle for the cell `logoUse2` in the notebook, don’t you?

Hmm… I do see it now; not sure how I missed it. 😕

I suppose that your `logoUse2` cell is waiting for `logo2` to have a value before it resolves. But `logo2` doesn’t have a value since `viewof logo2` has no value property.