Activiti/Activiti · error · ActivitiObjectNotFoundException

No process instance found for id

Error message

No process instance found for id '${processInstanceId}'

What it means

Activiti throws ActivitiObjectNotFoundException when deleteProcessInstance is given a processInstanceId that does not resolve to a process-instance execution. The entity manager findById returns null and the engine throws before attempting the cascade delete. It signals the instance never existed, already completed, or was already deleted.

Solutions

1. Check existence first with runtimeService.createProcessInstanceQuery().processInstanceId(id).singleResult() and skip when null.
2. Handle ActivitiObjectNotFoundException in the cleanup loop and treat it as success (idempotent deletion).
3. Only attempt deletion of instances in a running state (query with .active() if applicable).
4. Confirm the id is a process instance id (root execution), not a child execution id from another table/query.

Example fix

// before
runtimeService.deleteProcessInstance(instanceId, "cleanup"); // throws when already gone
// after
if (runtimeService.createProcessInstanceQuery().processInstanceId(instanceId).singleResult() != null) {
    runtimeService.deleteProcessInstance(instanceId, "cleanup");
}

boolean running = runtimeService.createProcessInstanceQuery()
    .processInstanceId(processInstanceId)
    .count() > 0;
if (!running) log.info("Instance {} already ended/deleted, skipping delete", processInstanceId);

try {
    runtimeService.deleteProcessInstance(processInstanceId, reason);
} catch (org.activiti.engine.ActivitiObjectNotFoundException e) {
    log.info("Process instance {} already gone", processInstanceId);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling runtimeService.deleteProcessInstance(id, reason) with an id from a finished instance, an already-deleted instance, or a mistyped/non-existent id (also internally from deleteProcessInstancesByProcessDefinition cascades).

Common situations: Cleanup jobs racing with instance completion; deleting instances that ended between listing and deleting; stale ids cached in application state; environment/database mismatch.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Could not be found', 'does not exist', 'not found in database': the resource-not-found family when an ID, slug, key, or URI lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• Cannot find process definition with id
• Cannot find process instance with id
• Cannot find process instance with id
• Cannot find processInstance for id '
• Could not find a deployment with id '

AI-assisted analysis of Activiti/Activiti@56435b1a97 (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/558ce4bff2de6022. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at activiti-core/activiti-engine/src/main/java/org/activiti/engine/impl/persistence/entity/ExecutionEntityManagerImpl.java:467

        );

        for (String processInstanceId : processInstanceIds) {
            deleteProcessInstance(processInstanceId, deleteReason, cascade);
        }

        if (cascade) {
            getHistoricProcessInstanceEntityManager().deleteHistoricProcessInstanceByProcessDefinitionId(
                processDefinitionId
            );
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void deleteProcessInstance(String processInstanceId, String deleteReason, boolean cascade) {
        ExecutionEntity execution = findById(processInstanceId);

        if (execution == null) {
            throw new ActivitiObjectNotFoundException(
                "No process instance found for id '" + processInstanceId + "'",
                ProcessInstance.class
            );
        }

        deleteProcessInstanceCascade(execution, deleteReason, cascade);
    }

    protected void deleteProcessInstanceCascade(ExecutionEntity execution, String deleteReason, boolean deleteHistory) {
        // fill default reason if none provided
        if (deleteReason == null) {
            deleteReason = DeleteReason.PROCESS_INSTANCE_DELETED;
        }

        for (ExecutionEntity subExecutionEntity : execution.getExecutions()) {
            if (subExecutionEntity.isMultiInstanceRoot()) {
                for (ExecutionEntity miExecutionEntity : subExecutionEntity.getExecutions()) {
                    if (miExecutionEntity.getSubProcessInstance() != null) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 56435b1a97)