DeprecationWarning: neg_bboxes is deprecated, please use "ne

Error message

DeprecationWarning: neg_bboxes is deprecated, please use "neg_priors" instead

What it means

Deprecation warning from SamplingResult.neg_bboxes: renamed to neg_priors (negative prior anchors). The property forwards to self.neg_priors and will be removed in a future release.

Source

Thrown at mmdet/models/task_modules/samplers/sampling_result.py:138

        """torch.Tensor: concatenated positive and negative priors"""
        return cat_boxes([self.pos_priors, self.neg_priors])

    @property
    def bboxes(self):
        """torch.Tensor: concatenated positive and negative boxes"""
        warnings.warn('DeprecationWarning: bboxes is deprecated, '
                      'please use "priors" instead')
        return self.priors

    @property
    def pos_bboxes(self):
        warnings.warn('DeprecationWarning: pos_bboxes is deprecated, '
                      'please use "pos_priors" instead')
        return self.pos_priors

    @property
    def neg_bboxes(self):
        warnings.warn('DeprecationWarning: neg_bboxes is deprecated, '
                      'please use "neg_priors" instead')
        return self.neg_priors

    def to(self, device):
        """Change the device of the data inplace.

        Example:
            >>> self = SamplingResult.random()
            >>> print(f'self = {self.to(None)}')
            >>> # xdoctest: +REQUIRES(--gpu)
            >>> print(f'self = {self.to(0)}')
        """
        _dict = self.__dict__
        for key, value in _dict.items():
            if isinstance(value, (torch.Tensor, BaseBoxes)):
                _dict[key] = value.to(device)
        return self

View on GitHub (pinned to cfd5d3a985)

Solutions

Use sampling_result.neg_priors
Migrate bboxes and pos_bboxes accesses at the same time
Run tests to catch remaining legacy attribute accesses

Example fix

# before
neg_rois = sampling_result.neg_bboxes
# after
neg_rois = sampling_result.neg_priors

Defensive patterns

Strategy: type-guard

Validate before calling

assert hasattr(result, 'neg_priors')

Type guard

def get_neg_priors(result):
    return result.neg_priors if hasattr(result, 'neg_priors') else result.neg_bboxes

Prevention

Use neg_priors in hard-negative mining code
Migrate all three renamed attributes at once

When it happens

Trigger: Accessing sampling_result.neg_bboxes in custom negative-sample handling, OHEM-style logic, or tests.

Common situations: Custom samplers / hard-negative mining code using the old attribute name after the priors rename.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of open-mmlab/mmdetection@cfd5d3a985 (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/346cff9e166c1452. Report an issue: GitHub.