What causes "Entity `%s` with identifier value `%s` does not exist" in hibernate/hibernate-orm?

Restore the missing rows or null/delete the orphaned FK values (find them with an anti-join, see validation below).

hibernate/hibernate-orm · error · FetchNotFoundException

Entity `%s` with identifier value `%s` does not exist

Error message

Entity `%s` with identifier value `%s` does not exist

What it means

The sibling of EntityFilterException in the same setMissing() block: EntityInitializerImpl found a non-null FK value for a joined to-one fetch but no target row, no filter explains the absence, and notFoundAction != IGNORE - so it throws FetchNotFoundException('Entity X with identifier value Y does not exist'). This is Hibernate's canonical 'the foreign key points at a row that is not there' error during result-set processing.

Source

Thrown at hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/sql/results/graph/entity/internal/EntityInitializerImpl.java:917

		data.entityInstanceForNotify = null;
		data.entityHolder = null;
		data.setState( State.MISSING );

		// super processes the foreign-key target column.  here we
		// need to also look at the foreign-key value column to check
		// for a dangling foreign-key

		if ( keyAssembler != null ) {
			final Object foreignKeyValue = keyAssembler.assemble( data.getRowProcessingState() );
			if ( foreignKeyValue != null ) {
				if ( notFoundAction != NotFoundAction.IGNORE ) {
					final String entityName = getEntityDescriptor().getEntityName();
					if ( affectedByFilter ) {
						throw new EntityFilterException( entityName, foreignKeyValue,
								referencedModelPart.getNavigableRole().getFullPath() );
					}
					else {
						throw new FetchNotFoundException( entityName, foreignKeyValue );
					}
				}
			}
		}
	}

	@Override
	public void resolveFromPreviousRow(EntityInitializerData data) {
		if ( data.getState() == State.UNINITIALIZED ) {
			final var entityKey = data.entityKey;
			if ( entityKey == null ) {
				setMissing( data );
			}
			else {
				data.setState( State.INITIALIZED );
				notifySubInitializersToReusePreviousRowInstance( data );
			}
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to fad1729dce)

Solutions

Restore the missing rows or null/delete the orphaned FK values (find them with an anti-join, see validation below).
Add a database FOREIGN KEY constraint to make dangling FKs impossible going forward.
If the target can legitimately disappear, map @ManyToOne(optional=true) with a nullable column, or @NotFound(action = NotFoundAction.IGNORE).
Re-run the failing query after repair to confirm the anti-join returns zero rows.

Example fix

-- find dangling references
SELECT c.id FROM child c LEFT JOIN parent p ON p.id = c.parent_id WHERE c.parent_id IS NOT NULL AND p.id IS NULL;

// before
@ManyToOne(optional = false, fetch = FetchType.EAGER)
@JoinColumn(name = "parent_id")
private Parent parent;

// after
@ManyToOne
@JoinColumn(name = "parent_id")
@NotFound(action = NotFoundAction.IGNORE)
private Parent parent;

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Integrity pre-check for every mandatory FK the query traverses
String sql = "select c.id, c.parent_id from child c left join parent p on p.id = c.parent_id "
           + "where c.parent_id is not null and p.id is null";
if (!em.createNativeQuery(sql).getResultList().isEmpty()) {
    throw new IllegalStateException("dangling parent_id references found");
}

Try / catch

try {
    List<Child> rows = em.createQuery("select c from Child c join fetch c.parent", Child.class).getResultList();
} catch (FetchNotFoundException e) {
    // log entity name + identifier, quarantine the row, continue with the rest
}

Prevention

Enforce FK constraints in the schema; treat their absence as a defect.
Schedule anti-join integrity checks in ops dashboards for legacy data.
Never delete reference data with raw SQL without checking dependents.
Map optional references nullable so absence degrades to null, not an exception.

When it happens

Trigger: Querying an entity whose non-null FK (joined @ManyToOne/@OneToOne) references an id absent from the target table; deletes performed outside Hibernate (native SQL, another service, DBA scripts) after the referencing rows were written; partially committed imports; legacy data with FK constraints never enforced.

Common situations: Reference-data cleanup that orphans rows; test databases seeded inconsistently; production restores where child tables are newer than parent tables; schemas without FOREIGN KEY constraints.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hibernate/hibernate-orm@fad1729dce (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a99f5ac14e950fde. Report an issue: GitHub.