flowable/flowable-engine · error · java.text.ParseException

Minute and Second values must be between 0 and 59

Error message

Minute and Second values must be between 0 and 59

What it means

Flowable's CronExpression validates each parsed field against its legal numeric range. When a set of second or minute values is built (in addToSet, called from storeExpressionVals while parsing), any value below 0 or above 59 (including an end-of-range value > 59) is rejected — except the internal ALL_SPEC sentinel — with this ParseException. It fires at expression-parse time with position -1 because the offending field is only known as a set at that point.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-engine-common/src/main/java/org/flowable/common/engine/impl/calendar/CronExpression.java:977

        }

        return i;
    }

    protected int findNextWhiteSpace(int i, String s) {
        for (; i < s.length() && (s.charAt(i) != ' ' || s.charAt(i) != '\t'); i++) {
        }

        return i;
    }

    protected void addToSet(int val, int end, int incr, int type) throws ParseException {

        TreeSet<Integer> set = getSet(type);

        if (type == SECOND || type == MINUTE) {
            if ((val < 0 || val > 59 || end > 59) && (val != ALL_SPEC_INT)) {
                throw new ParseException("Minute and Second values must be between 0 and 59", -1);
            }
        } else if (type == HOUR) {
            if ((val < 0 || val > 23 || end > 23) && (val != ALL_SPEC_INT)) {
                throw new ParseException("Hour values must be between 0 and 23", -1);
            }
        } else if (type == DAY_OF_MONTH) {
            if ((val < 1 || val > 31 || end > 31) && (val != ALL_SPEC_INT) && (val != NO_SPEC_INT)) {
                throw new ParseException("Day of month values must be between 1 and 31", -1);
            }
        } else if (type == MONTH) {
            if ((val < 1 || val > 12 || end > 12) && (val != ALL_SPEC_INT)) {
                throw new ParseException("Month values must be between 1 and 12", -1);
            }
        } else if (type == DAY_OF_WEEK) {
            if ((val == 0 || val > 7 || end > 7) && (val != ALL_SPEC_INT) && (val != NO_SPEC_INT)) {
                throw new ParseException("Day-of-Week values must be between 1 and 7", -1);
            }
        }

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Keep seconds and minutes in the range 0-59; normalize any computed value with Math.floorMod(value, 60) before building the expression
2. If the intent was an interval, use the increment form instead of an out-of-range value, e.g. '0/90' is still invalid — instead use '0 0/2 * * * ?' style fields or restructure the schedule
3. Convert duration-style inputs (milliseconds) to a proper schedule before rendering a cron expression; never paste a duration number into a seconds field
4. Pre-validate with CronExpression.isValidExpression(expr) and surface a clear message to users configuring timers

Example fix

// before
String cron = "0 " + intervalSeconds + " * * * ?"; // intervalSeconds could be 90
// after
int normalized = Math.floorMod(intervalSeconds, 60);
String cron = "0 " + normalized + " * * * ?"; // always 0-59

int normalize60(int v) { return Math.floorMod(v, 60); }
// before building the expression
if (seconds < 0 || seconds > 59 || minutes < 0 || minutes > 59) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Seconds/minutes must be 0-59");
}
String expr = seconds + " " + minutes + " " + hours + " * * ?";
if (!CronExpression.isValidExpression(expr)) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid cron expression: " + expr);
}

boolean isValidSecondOrMinute(int v) {
    return v >= 0 && v <= 59;
}

try {
    CronExpression cron = new CronExpression(expr);
} catch (ParseException e) {
    throw new ConfigurationException("Cron seconds/minutes must be 0-59: " + expr, e);
}

When it happens

Trigger: new CronExpression(expr) where the seconds or minutes field contains a number > 59 or negative — e.g. '60 * * * * ?' (60 seconds), '0 75 * * * ?' (75 minutes), or computed values produced by arithmetic in generated expressions.

Common situations: Confusing seconds with milliseconds in generated timers (60000 ms written into the seconds field); copying Unix cron (5 fields, minute first, some allow 60 in edge tooling) into the 6/7-field Quartz format incorrectly; building expressions programmatically with offsets that overflow the 0-59 range instead of being normalized modulo 60.

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

• '#' option is not valid here. (pos=
• Unexpected character '<c>' after '/'
• Hour values must be between 0 and 23
• Day of month values must be between 1 and 31
• Month values must be between 1 and 12

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/dbedf8666b1894e7. Report an issue: GitHub.