OMG!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS WAS THE ISSUE.  How hard could it be to fix a simple bug like that?  That's such an odd bug to have as well.  That would also explain why sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.  I thought I was being gaslit.  I felt like that singing and dancing Frog from Looney Tunes.  I FELT looney.  Oh my lord.  Thank you for identifying this.