RocketChat/Rocket.Chat · error · Meteor.Error

error-invalid-user

error-invalid-user

Error message

Invalid user

What it means

The Meteor method wrapper for unreadMessages resolves the caller with Meteor.userId(); when the connection has no authenticated user it throws Meteor.Error('error-invalid-user', 'Invalid user'). The same authentication gate as other user-scoped methods: the invocation arrived without a valid session.

Source

Thrown at apps/meteor/server/lib/messaging/unread/unreadMessages.ts:88

		return logger.debug('Provided message is already marked as unread');
	}

	logger.debug({
		msg: 'Updating unread message as the first unread',
		timestamp: originalMessage.ts,
	});
	const setAsUnreadResponse = await Subscriptions.setAsUnreadByRoomIdAndUserId(originalMessage.rid, userId, originalMessage.ts);
	if (setAsUnreadResponse.modifiedCount) {
		void notifyOnSubscriptionChangedByRoomIdAndUserId(originalMessage.rid, userId);
	}
};

Meteor.methods<ServerMethods>({
	async unreadMessages(firstUnreadMessage, room) {
		methodDeprecationLogger.method('unreadMessages', '9.0.0', '/v1/subscriptions.unread');
		const userId = Meteor.userId();
		if (!userId) {
			throw new Meteor.Error('error-invalid-user', 'Invalid user', {
				method: 'unreadMessages',
			});
		}

		return unreadMessages(userId, firstUnreadMessage, room);
	},
});

View on GitHub (pinned to b2c16d5842)

Solutions

1. Check Meteor.userId() before calling; if null, re-authenticate first
2. Queue the unread action and re-run it once login resumes
3. Authenticate automated clients and keep the token fresh

Example fix

// before
Meteor.call('unreadMessages', { _id }); // logged out

// after
if (Meteor.userId()) {
  Meteor.call('unreadMessages', { _id });
} else {
  queueAfterLogin(() => Meteor.call('unreadMessages', { _id }));

if (!Meteor.userId()) {
  return redirectToLogin();
}
Meteor.call('unreadMessages', { _id: anchorId });

const hasSession = (): boolean => typeof Meteor.userId() === 'string';

Meteor.call('unreadMessages', first, room, (err) => {
  if (err?.error === 'error-invalid-user') {
    redirectToLogin(); // no authenticated user on this connection
  }
});

When it happens

Trigger: Meteor.call('unreadMessages', first, room) from a connection that is logged out, still pre-login, or whose token expired; server-side invocation on a connection without a bound user.

Common situations: Session expiry mid-use; scripts firing methods before authentication; tab resumed after the user logged out elsewhere.

Understand the failure class

Background: error-invalid-user: "Invalid user" errors in Rocket.Chat — what they mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 2 libraries.

Related errors

• error-invalid-user
• error-no-message-for-unread
• error-action-not-allowed
• error-subscription-not-found
• error-invalid-user

AI-assisted analysis of RocketChat/Rocket.Chat@b2c16d5842 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ef0594edb7f46dcd. Report an issue: GitHub.