RocketChat/Rocket.Chat · error · Meteor.Error

error-invalid-param

error-invalid-param

Error message

sidebarCategories contains a blank category name

What it means

saveUserPreferences throws error-invalid-param with message 'sidebarCategories contains a blank category name' when a sidebarCategories entry in user preferences has a name that is empty or only whitespace. validateSidebarCategories skips default categories (default: true) but requires custom categories to have a non-blank trimmed name. This protects the sidebar UI from unnameable categories.

Source

Thrown at apps/meteor/server/meteor-methods/users/saveUserPreferences.ts:104

		return;
	}

	const updateNotificationResponse = await Subscriptions.updateNotificationUserPreferences(userId, newValue, setting, preferenceType);
	if (updateNotificationResponse.modifiedCount) {
		void notifyOnSubscriptionChangedByUserPreferences(userId, preferenceType, 'subscription');
	}
}

const MAX_CATEGORY_NAME_LENGTH = 30;

export const validateSidebarCategories = (categories: ISidebarCategory[]): void => {
	for (const category of categories) {
		if (category.default) {
			continue;
		}
		const trimmed = category.name.trim();
		if (!trimmed) {
			throw new Meteor.Error('error-invalid-param', 'sidebarCategories contains a blank category name');
		}
		if (trimmed.length > MAX_CATEGORY_NAME_LENGTH) {
			throw new Meteor.Error('error-invalid-param', 'sidebarCategories category name exceeds maximum length');
		}
	}

	const hasDuplicates = (values: string[]): boolean => new Set(values).size !== values.length;
	if (hasDuplicates(categories.map((category) => category._id))) {
		throw new Meteor.Error('error-invalid-param', 'sidebarCategories contains duplicate category _id values');
	}
};

export const saveUserPreferences = async (settings: Partial<UserPreferences>, userId: string): Promise<void> => {
	const keys = {
		language: Match.Optional(String),
		newRoomNotification: Match.Optional(String),
		newMessageNotification: Match.Optional(String),
		clockMode: Match.Optional(Number),

View on GitHub (pinned to b263243745)

Solutions

1. Require a non-empty category name in the form/UI before enabling save (disable the save button when the trimmed name is empty)
2. Default the name to a sensible fallback (e.g. 'Untitled') when creating a category client-side
3. If syncing preferences programmatically, filter out blank-named categories before calling saveUserPreferences
4. Trim input client-side so whitespace-only names are caught early with a friendly validation message

Example fix

// before
saveUserPreferences({ sidebarCategories: [{ _id: 'cat1', name: '   ' }] }, userId);

// after
saveUserPreferences({ sidebarCategories: [{ _id: 'cat1', name: 'My Category' }] }, userId);

const ok = categories.every((c) => c.default === true || (typeof c.name === 'string' && c.name.trim().length > 0));
if (!ok) throw new TypeError('every custom sidebar category needs a non-blank name');

const hasValidCategoryNames = (cats: { name?: string; default?: boolean }[]): boolean => cats.every((c) => c.default || (typeof c.name === 'string' && c.name.trim().length > 0));

When it happens

Trigger: Calling the saveUserPreferences meteor method (e.g. via user preferences save from the account UI or API) with sidebarCategories containing { name: '' }, { name: ' ' }, or a category whose name is undefined/null stringified.

Common situations: Saving a new sidebar category from a form where the name input was left blank; trimming/normalization logic upstream deleting the name; importing or syncing preferences from another source with missing names.

Related errors

• duplicated-account
• error-invalid-account
• error-user-registration-custom-field
• error-invalid-room-name
• error-message-same-as-tmid

AI-assisted analysis of RocketChat/Rocket.Chat@b263243745 (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/52de0939c1167e28. Report an issue: GitHub.