STM32 UART error does not clear flag - error-handling

Question

I am programming a STM32F446 microcontroller and I am communicating it with an ESP8266 (startByte-command-size-dataArray-crc1-crc2). However I have a problem, whenever the ESP8266 resets it gives a serial debug (cannot turn it off) #74880 baud (also cannot change this) which is causing an error in the STM32 microcontroller, as it should since I programmed them to communicate at 9600.
The problem is that whenever that error occurs in the STM32 microcontroller the error never stops, since it cannot clear the error flag. In order to clear the error flag you just need to read the status register (HAL_UART_GetError function), but my code is unable to do it when running, and by that I mean that no matter how much I read the register it never changes, UNLESS I pause debugging and then resume
void HAL_UART_ErrorCallback(UART_HandleTypeDef *huart) {
errorCounter++;
if(HAL_IS_BIT_CLR(huart->Instance->CR1, 1)) {
SET_BIT(huart->Instance->CR1, USART_CR1_RXNEIE | USART_CR1_PEIE);
SET_BIT(huart->Instance->CR3, USART_CR3_EIE);
if(HAL_IS_BIT_CLR(huart->Instance->CR3, USART_CR3_DMAR)) {
SET_BIT(huart->Instance->CR3, USART_CR3_DMAR);
}
}
while(huart->Instance->SR != 0x80) {
huart->Instance->SR
HAL_UART_GetError(huart);
HAL_UART_GetState(huart);
huart->Instance->SR = 0;
}
}
The while loop is there because I wanted to see if I could force my code to read the same register over and over until it cleared it, but it didn't matter.
I have also tried disabling UART (__HAL_UART_DISABLE) forcefully but still, the same problem, it only clears the flag whenever I pause debugging.
I have searched everywhere and I cannot find any way to make this work. I even disabled optimization, but the same thing kept happening.
EDIT:
Found a way to make it work. It worked when I paused debugging because, as already stated in the answer, the debugger was reading the DR register, thus clearing it, and when I read the SR register it actually cleared it (it wasn't clearing because there was something that still needed to be read).
Solution: read DR register and then read SR register

Answer 1

First of all your code is a total mess. It will not even compile and most of it does not make too much sense. You can't clear error flags by writing 0 to SR register. You must read the SR and then read the data register.
The debugger probably reads the DR register and that is the reason why the flags are being cleared when you break the execution of the program.
My advice - read the RM very carefully.