flowable/flowable-engine · error · ParseException

Increment > 24 :

Error message

Increment > 24 : 

What it means

checkIncrementRange rejects an increment larger than 23 for the HOUR field. The step value in an hour field '/n' expression must be within the field's valid range (0-23); exceeding it throws this ParseException.

Solutions

1. Cap the hour step at 23
2. Express longer periods using the day-of-month field or a separate schedule/trigger mechanism
3. Split the schedule into multiple cron expressions if needed

Example fix

// before
new CronExpression("0 0 0/48 * * ?");
// after
new CronExpression("0 0 0 1/2 * ?"); // every other day

if (hourStep > 23) throw new IllegalArgumentException("Hour step must be <= 23");

try {
    CronExpression cron = new CronExpression(expr);
} catch (ParseException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().startsWith("Increment > 24")) {
        throw new ConfigurationException("Hour step must be <= 23: " + expr, e);
    }
    throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Expressions like "0 0 0/24 * * ?" or "0 0 0/48 * * ?" where the hour step exceeds 23.

Common situations: Developers trying to express 'every N hours' with N larger than 24 (e.g. every 2 days at midnight), or computing step sizes from duration configurations.

Understand the failure class

Background: "value must be between 0 and 1" / "out of range" / "must not be negative" errors: fixing range-validation failures across open-source libraries — this error's family across 42 libraries.

Related errors

• Increment > 12 :
• Increment > 31 :
• Increment > 60 :
• Increment > 7 :
• Unexpected character:

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cc038a234fa03f70. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable-engine-common/src/main/java/org/flowable/common/engine/impl/calendar/CronExpression.java:713

                    ValueSet vs = getValue(val, s, i);
                    val = vs.value;
                    i = vs.pos;
                }
                i = checkNext(i, s, val, type);
                return i;
            }
        } else {
            throw new ParseException("Unexpected character: " + c, i);
        }

        return i;
    }

    private void checkIncrementRange(int incr, int type, int idxPos) throws ParseException {
        if (incr > 59 && (type == SECOND || type == MINUTE)) {
            throw new ParseException("Increment > 60 : " + incr, idxPos);
        } else if (incr > 23 && (type == HOUR)) {
            throw new ParseException("Increment > 24 : " + incr, idxPos);
        } else if (incr > 31 && (type == DAY_OF_MONTH)) {
            throw new ParseException("Increment > 31 : " + incr, idxPos);
        } else if (incr > 7 && (type == DAY_OF_WEEK)) {
            throw new ParseException("Increment > 7 : " + incr, idxPos);
        } else if (incr > 12 && (type == MONTH)) {
            throw new ParseException("Increment > 12 : " + incr, idxPos);
        }
    }

    protected int checkNext(int pos, String s, int val, int type) throws ParseException {

        int end = -1;
        int i = pos;

        if (i >= s.length()) {
            addToSet(val, end, -1, type);
            return i;
        }

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