marmelab/react-admin · error · Error

useUpdateMany mutation requires a non-empty data object

Error message

useUpdateMany mutation requires a non-empty data object

What it means

useUpdateMany requires params.data to be a truthy, non-empty object since there is nothing to update otherwise. The hook throws synchronously when data is falsy (undefined, null, empty object is truthy so undefined/null are the usual culprits).

Source

Thrown at packages/ra-core/src/dataProvider/useUpdateMany.ts:110

        ...mutationOptions
    } = options;

    const dataProviderUpdateMany = useEvent(
        (resource: string, params: UpdateManyParams<RecordType>) =>
            dataProvider.updateMany<RecordType>(resource, params)
    );
    const customMutationFnWithDataProviderResult = async (
        resource: string | undefined,
        params: Omit<UseUpdateManyMutateParams<RecordType>, 'resource'>
    ) => {
        if (resource == null) {
            throw new Error('useUpdateMany mutation requires a resource');
        }
        if (params.ids == null) {
            throw new Error('useUpdateMany mutation requires an array of ids');
        }
        if (!params.data) {
            throw new Error(
                'useUpdateMany mutation requires a non-empty data object'
            );
        }
        if (customMutationFn == null) {
            return dataProviderUpdateMany(
                resource,
                params as UpdateManyParams<RecordType>
            );
        }

        return {
            data: await customMutationFn({ resource, ...params }),
        };
    };

    const [mutate, mutationResult] = useMutationWithMutationMode<
        MutationError,
        UpdateManyResult<RecordType>,

View on GitHub (pinned to 051f511bb0)

Solutions

Ensure a non-empty data object is passed: mutate({ ids, data: { field: value } }).
Guard the call with if (data && Object.keys(data).length > 0).
If the intent is to update one field, hardcode the payload rather than deriving it from possibly-empty state.
Check that form defaultValues are set so submitted values are never undefined.

Example fix

// before
mutate({ ids, data: updates }); // updates undefined when form untouched
// after
const updates = { status: 'archived', ...formValues };
if (ids.length && Object.keys(updates).length) {
    mutate({ ids, data: updates });
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const canUpdate = ids.length > 0 && data != null && Object.keys(data).length > 0;
if (canUpdate) mutate({ ids, data });

Type guard

const hasData = (p: { data?: unknown }): p is { data: Record<string, unknown> } =>
    p.data != null && typeof p.data === 'object';

Try / catch

try {
    mutate({ ids, data });
} catch (e) {
    if (e instanceof Error && e.message.includes('non-empty data object')) {
        notify('No changes to apply', { type: 'warning' });
    }
}

Prevention

Never derive data solely from possibly-uninitialized form state.
Provide defaultValues in bulk-edit forms.
Assert the payload object has keys before mutating.
Log the payload in development before calling mutate.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling mutate({ ids, data: undefined }) or data built conditionally (e.g. from an empty form values object that was never set).

Common situations: Bulk edit dialogs where the form submit passes uninitialized values; refactored code where data was moved into another variable; passing only ids and forgetting data entirely.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of marmelab/react-admin@051f511bb0 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cd74057786483525. Report an issue: GitHub.