apache/druid · error · RE

Max parse exceptions[%s] exceeded

Error message

Max parse exceptions[%s] exceeded

What it means

ParseExceptionHandler enforces a per-task cap on bad records: once unparseable + processed-with-error rows exceed maxAllowedParseExceptions, it throws a RequestException (RE) to halt ingestion. Saved ParseExceptionReports are attached for debugging before the throw.

Source

Thrown at processing/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/segment/incremental/ParseExceptionHandler.java:98

      rowIngestionMeters.incrementUnparseable();
    }

    logParseExceptionHelper(e);

    if (savedParseExceptionReports != null) {
      ParseExceptionReport parseExceptionReport = new ParseExceptionReport(
          e.getInput(),
          e.isFromPartiallyValidRow() ? "processedWithError" : "unparseable",
          e.isFromPartiallyValidRow()
          ? ((UnparseableColumnsParseException) e).getColumnExceptionMessages()
          : ImmutableList.of(e.getMessage()),
          e.getTimeOfExceptionMillis()
      );
      savedParseExceptionReports.add(parseExceptionReport);
    }

    if (rowIngestionMeters.getUnparseable() + rowIngestionMeters.getProcessedWithError() > maxAllowedParseExceptions) {
      throw new RE("Max parse exceptions[%s] exceeded", maxAllowedParseExceptions);
    }
  }

  @Nullable
  public List<ParseExceptionReport> getSavedParseExceptionReports()
  {
    if (savedParseExceptionReports == null) {
      return null;
    }

    final List<ParseExceptionReport> reports = new ArrayList<>();
    for (int i = 0; i < savedParseExceptionReports.size(); i++) {
      reports.add(savedParseExceptionReports.getLatest(i));
    }

    return reports;
  }

View on GitHub (pinned to 9b90983fd2)

Solutions

1. Inspect the saved ParseExceptionReports (task logs / reports endpoint) to identify the malformed records and fix the parser or input
2. Raise maxAllowedParseExceptions (or set to -1 for unlimited) in tuningConfig if some bad rows are acceptable
3. Correct upstream data quality or add an explicit transform/filter for the offending records

Example fix

// before
tuningConfig: { maxAllowedParseExceptions: 0 }
// after
tuningConfig: { maxAllowedParseExceptions: 1000 }

try { handler.handle(re); } catch (RequestException e) { if (e.getMessage().startsWith("Max parse exceptions")) { log(handler.getSavedParseExceptionReports()); } throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Ingestion (Kafka/Kinesis/batch native) whose input contains more malformed/erroring rows than the configured maxAllowedParseExceptions, evaluated in the handle() method after each bad row.

Common situations: Dirty input data (schema drift, wrong delimiter/format), encoder producing corrupt records, or a maxAllowedParseExceptions value set too low for intentionally noisy sources.

Understand the failure class

Background: payload too large / request exceeds maximum size: why libraries cap bytes and how to fix oversize payloads — this error's family across 50 libraries.

Related errors

• Could not convert value [%s] to long.
• Could not convert value [%s] to float.
• Could not convert value [%s] to double.
• Could not convert value [%s] to double for dimension [%s]. I
• Could not transform value for __time.

AI-assisted analysis of apache/druid@9b90983fd2 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/66cb773b7da4629b. Report an issue: GitHub.