flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableObjectNotFoundException

No historic task instance found with id:

Error message

No historic task instance found with id: 

What it means

Lookup failure in DeleteHistoricTaskInstanceCmd.execute: taskId passed the null check, but no historic task instance exists in the history store with that id (already deleted, or the task never ended/never existed historically).

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/engine/impl/cmd/DeleteHistoricTaskInstanceCmd.java:50

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
    protected String taskId;

    public DeleteHistoricTaskInstanceCmd(String taskId) {
        this.taskId = taskId;
    }

    @Override
    public Object execute(CommandContext commandContext) {

        if (taskId == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("taskId is null");
        }

        // Check if task is completed
        HistoricTaskInstanceEntity historicTaskInstance = CommandContextUtil.getHistoricTaskService().getHistoricTask(taskId);

        if (historicTaskInstance == null) {
            throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("No historic task instance found with id: " + taskId, HistoricTaskInstance.class);
        }
        if (historicTaskInstance.getEndTime() == null) {
            throw new FlowableException("task does not have an endTime, cannot delete " + historicTaskInstance);
        }

        CommandContextUtil.getHistoryManager(commandContext).recordHistoricTaskDeleted(historicTaskInstance);
        
        return null;
    }

}

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Verify the task exists via historyService.createHistoricTaskInstanceQuery().taskId(id).singleResult() before deleting
2. Check the engine history level is at least 'audit' so tasks are recorded
3. Confirm you are using the taskId from the same engine/database as the delete call

Example fix

// before
historyService.deleteHistoricTask(taskId);
// after
HistoricTaskInstance hti = historyService.createHistoricTaskInstanceQuery()
    .taskId(taskId).singleResult();
if (hti != null) {
    historyService.deleteHistoricTask(taskId);
}

HistoricTaskInstance hti = historyService.createHistoricTaskInstanceQuery()
    .taskId(taskId).singleResult();
if (hti == null) {
    logger.warn("No historic task for id " + taskId + ", skipping delete");
    return;
}

boolean historicTaskExists = id -> historyService.createHistoricTaskInstanceQuery()
    .taskId(id).count() > 0;

try {
    historyService.deleteHistoricTask(taskId);
} catch (FlowableObjectNotFoundException e) {
    logger.info("Historic task already gone: " + taskId);
}

When it happens

Trigger: historyService.deleteHistoricTask(taskId) with an id that does not match any row in ACT_HI_TASKINST: wrong id, task not yet created in history, history level too low to record tasks, or history cleanup already removed it.

Common situations: Running with history level 'none' or 'activity' so tasks are not recorded, using the runtime taskId after purge/cleanup jobs, or cross-environment ids (test id used against prod engine).

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Could not be found', 'does not exist', 'not found in database': the resource-not-found family when an ID, slug, key, or URI lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• Could not find a task instance with id '" + taskId + "'.
• Cannot resume task with id '
• Cannot find task with id ${taskId}
• No historic task exists with the given id:
• No case instance found for id

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/26e8792658b35c8c. Report an issue: GitHub.