RocketChat/Rocket.Chat · error

Invalid date range

Error message

Invalid date range

What it means

Thrown by makeAppLogsQuery (used by the EE app-logs API) when the caller supplies both startDate and endDate query parameters and the parsed startDate is greater than or equal to the parsed endDate. The function builds a Mongo _updatedAt range filter ($gte start, $lte end); an inverted or zero-width range is rejected instead of silently returning an empty result.

Solutions

1. Swap or correct the parameters so startDate is strictly earlier than endDate and retry.
2. Validate/normalize both dates on the client before sending: parse with new Date(), compare, and only append endDate when it is strictly greater than startDate.
3. If both bounds are equal intentionally, drop endDate (a single startDate gives an open-ended $gte filter) instead of sending an empty range.
4. Check timezone handling (append explicit offsets or use ISO 8601 with Z) so server-side parsing does not invert the order.

Example fix

// before
const qs = `?startDate=${start}&endDate=${end}`; // start >= end -> "Invalid date range"

// after
const qs = new URLSearchParams();
qs.set('startDate', start.toISOString());
if (end.getTime() > start.getTime()) qs.set('endDate', end.toISOString());

function isValidLogRange(start?: string, end?: string): boolean {
  if (!start || !end) return true;
  const s = new Date(start).getTime();
  const e = new Date(end).getTime();
  return Number.isFinite(s) && Number.isFinite(e) && s < e;
}

try {
  const logs = await fetchAppLogs({ startDate, endDate });
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof Error && e.message === 'Invalid date range') {
    // fix the picker bounds and re-run; retrying the same params is pointless
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Any app-logs request whose query string contains startDate and endDate where new Date(startDate) >= new Date(endDate), e.g. ?startDate=2026-01-10&endDate=2026-01-01, or identical timestamps (equality also throws because $gte >= $lte). Malformed strings that parse to Invalid Date also end up comparing as false in JS, but equal/inverted valid dates are the direct trigger.

Common situations: Dashboard date-picker sending the fields in the wrong order; timezone confusion where an end-of-day UTC end date lands before a local-time start date; copy-paste of the same timestamp for both bounds; client building params from two independent inputs without cross-validation.

Related errors

• error-invalid-dates
• error-invalid-param
• error-invalid-room
• error-invalid-room
• error-invalid-scope

AI-assisted analysis of RocketChat/Rocket.Chat@b2c16d5842 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e73f442e9ca9ce03. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at apps/meteor/ee/server/apps/communication/endpoints/lib/makeAppLogsQuery.ts:53

	if (queryParams.method) {
		query.method = queryParams.method;
	}

	if (queryParams.instanceId) {
		query.instanceId = queryParams.instanceId;
	}

	if (queryParams.startDate) {
		query._updatedAt = {
			$gte: new Date(queryParams.startDate),
		};
	}

	if (queryParams.endDate) {
		const endDate = new Date(queryParams.endDate);

		if (query._updatedAt?.$gte && query._updatedAt.$gte >= endDate) {
			throw new Error('Invalid date range');
		}

		query._updatedAt = {
			...(query._updatedAt || {}),
			$lte: endDate,
		};
	}

	return query;
}

View on GitHub (pinned to b2c16d5842)