flowable/flowable-engine · error · ActivitiObjectNotFoundException

Cannot find process instance with id

Error message

Cannot find process instance with id ${processInstanceId}

What it means

The command looked up processInstanceId via the execution entity manager and found no execution with that id, so it throws ActivitiObjectNotFoundException with ExecutionEntity as the missing-object class. Identity links exist only on live runtime executions; a stale or invalid id cannot be targeted.

Solutions

1. Verify the instance exists and is running first: runtimeService.createProcessInstanceQuery().processInstanceId(pid).singleResult() != null.
2. If the instance is finished, operate on history or skip deletion — runtime links are gone with the execution.
3. Confirm the id is a process instance/execution id, not a task or job id.
4. Check you are connected to the engine/database that owns the id (correct datasource and engine version).

Example fix

// before
runtimeService.deleteProcessInstanceIdentityLink(pid, userId, groupId, type);
// after
ProcessInstance pi = runtimeService.createProcessInstanceQuery().processInstanceId(pid).singleResult();
if (pi != null) {
    runtimeService.deleteProcessInstanceIdentityLink(pid, userId, groupId, type);
}

ProcessInstance pi = runtimeService.createProcessInstanceQuery().processInstanceId(pid).singleResult();
if (pi == null) {
    return; // instance already ended or id invalid; nothing to unlink
}

boolean isRunningProcessInstance(RuntimeService rs, String pid) {
    return pid != null && rs.createProcessInstanceQuery().processInstanceId(pid).count() > 0;
}

try {
    runtimeService.deleteProcessInstanceIdentityLink(pid, userId, groupId, type);
} catch (ActivitiObjectNotFoundException e) {
    if (ExecutionEntity.class.equals(e.getObjectClass())) {
        LOGGER.warn("Process instance {} no longer exists; skipping identity link cleanup", pid);
        return;
    }
    throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling deleteProcessInstanceIdentityLink with a processInstanceId that matches no execution: instance already completed or aborted (history-only), wrong id type (taskId/jobId), or an id from a different engine/database.

Common situations: Cleanup jobs deleting links after the process already ended; subprocess vs. process-instance id mismatches; multi-engine/multi-tenant setups where the id belongs to another engine's datasource.

Understand the failure class

Background: Record Not Found Errors: "not found", RecordNotFound, and "was not found" — what they mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

• Cannot find process instance with id
• The process instance with id
• Cannot find process definition with id
• Cannot find process definition with id
• Cannot find process definition with id

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9589bd9acc315de8. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable5-engine/src/main/java/org/activiti/engine/impl/cmd/DeleteIdentityLinkForProcessInstanceCmd.java:66

        if (processInstanceId == null) {
            throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("processInstanceId is null");
        }

        if (type == null) {
            throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("type is required when deleting a process identity link");
        }

        if (userId == null && groupId == null) {
            throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("userId and groupId cannot both be null");
        }
    }

    @Override
    public Void execute(CommandContext commandContext) {
        ExecutionEntity processInstance = commandContext.getExecutionEntityManager().findExecutionById(processInstanceId);

        if (processInstance == null) {
            throw new ActivitiObjectNotFoundException("Cannot find process instance with id " + processInstanceId, ExecutionEntity.class);
        }

        processInstance.deleteIdentityLink(userId, groupId, type);

        commandContext.getHistoryManager().createProcessInstanceIdentityLinkComment(processInstanceId, userId, groupId, type, false);

        return null;
    }

}

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