flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableException

batch entity not found for id

Error message

batch entity not found for id 

What it means

DeleteBatchCmd loads the batch entity via the BatchService; if no batch exists for the given batchId it throws a plain FlowableException. Batches (e.g. async migration/delete jobs) must exist before they can be deleted.

Solutions

1. Check existence first: processEngineConfiguration.getBatchServiceConfiguration().getBatchService().getBatch(batchId) (or keep your own registry) before deleting.
2. Treat deletion as idempotent: catch the FlowableException and skip if the batch is already gone.
3. Verify you are connected to the same database where the batch was created.

Example fix

// before
managementService.deleteBatch(batchId);
// after
Batch batch = ... getBatch(batchId);
if (batch != null) {
    managementService.deleteBatch(batchId);
}

// Batch lookup requires engine internals; check your own registry or query managementService tables before deleting

try {
    managementService.deleteBatch(batchId);
} catch (FlowableException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().startsWith("batch entity not found")) { log.info("Batch {} already gone", batchId); } else { throw e; }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling ManagementService.deleteBatch(batchId) with an id that has no ACT_RU_BATCH row — already deleted, wrong id, or id from a different engine configuration/database.

Common situations: Double deletion of the same batch in retry logic; batch expired and was purged automatically; referencing a batch id captured before a database reset.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Not found" and "does not exist" errors: why "Task not found", "No such folder", and "Can't find" fire when a lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 14 libraries.

Related errors

• Could not find a batch with id
• batch has to be provided
• Batch with id ' ' does not have a batch document.
• batchId is null
• batchSearchKey is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/401056da31c493fe. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/engine/impl/cmd/DeleteBatchCmd.java:37

import org.flowable.common.engine.impl.interceptor.CommandContext;
import org.flowable.engine.impl.cfg.ProcessEngineConfigurationImpl;
import org.flowable.engine.impl.util.CommandContextUtil;

public class DeleteBatchCmd implements Command<Void> {
    
    protected String batchId;
    
    public DeleteBatchCmd(String batchId) {
        this.batchId = batchId;
    }
    
    @Override
    public Void execute(CommandContext commandContext) {
        ProcessEngineConfigurationImpl processEngineConfiguration = CommandContextUtil.getProcessEngineConfiguration(commandContext);
        BatchService batchService = processEngineConfiguration.getBatchServiceConfiguration().getBatchService();
        Batch batch = batchService.getBatch(batchId);
        if (batch == null) {
            throw new FlowableException("batch entity not found for id " + batchId);
        }
        
        batchService.deleteBatch(batchId);
        
        return null;
    }
}

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