What causes "user not found: %s" in openimsdk/open-im-server?

Clean up orphaned friend rows: DELETE FROM friends WHERE friend_user_id NOT IN (SELECT user_id FROM users)

user not found: %s

Error message

user not found: %s

What it means

FriendDB2Pb converts a friend DB row to its protobuf representation, which requires embedding the friend's user profile. It loads the user via getUsers; if the user map lacks the FriendUserID entry, the friend row points to a user record that no longer exists, so it fails with 'user not found: %s'.

Source

Thrown at pkg/common/convert/friend.go:48

func FriendPb2DB(friend *sdkws.FriendInfo) *model.Friend {
	dbFriend := &model.Friend{}
	err := datautil.CopyStructFields(dbFriend, friend)
	if err != nil {
		return nil
	}
	dbFriend.FriendUserID = friend.FriendUser.UserID
	dbFriend.CreateTime = timeutil.UnixSecondToTime(friend.CreateTime)
	return dbFriend
}

func FriendDB2Pb(ctx context.Context, friendDB *model.Friend, getUsers func(ctx context.Context, userIDs []string) (map[string]*sdkws.UserInfo, error)) (*sdkws.FriendInfo, error) {
	users, err := getUsers(ctx, []string{friendDB.FriendUserID})
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	user, ok := users[friendDB.FriendUserID]
	if !ok {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("user not found: %s", friendDB.FriendUserID)
	}

	return &sdkws.FriendInfo{
		FriendUser: user,
		CreateTime: friendDB.CreateTime.Unix(),
	}, nil
}

func FriendsDB2Pb(ctx context.Context, friendsDB []*model.Friend, getUsers func(ctx context.Context, userIDs []string) (map[string]*sdkws.UserInfo, error)) (friendsPb []*sdkws.FriendInfo, err error) {
	if len(friendsDB) == 0 {
		return nil, nil
	}
	var userID []string
	for _, friendDB := range friendsDB {
		userID = append(userID, friendDB.FriendUserID)
	}

	users, err := getUsers(ctx, userID)

View on GitHub (pinned to 175a7bb067)

Solutions

Clean up orphaned friend rows: DELETE FROM friends WHERE friend_user_id NOT IN (SELECT user_id FROM users)
Restore the missing user record if it should exist (from backup)
Add cascade delete on user removal so friend rows are purged together
Make getUsers/convert tolerant: skip and log missing users instead of failing the whole list

Example fix

// before
user, ok := users[friendDB.FriendUserID]
if !ok { return nil, fmt.Errorf("user not found: %s", friendDB.FriendUserID) }
// after
user, ok := users[friendDB.FriendUserID]
if !ok {
    log.ZWarn(ctx, "friend user missing, skipping", nil, "userID", friendDB.FriendUserID)
    return nil, nil // or filter upstream
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// detect orphaned friend rows before converting
orphanSQL := `SELECT f.friend_user_id FROM friends f LEFT JOIN users u ON u.user_id = f.friend_user_id WHERE u.user_id IS NULL`
rows, _ := db.Query(orphanSQL) // clean up or restore these users first

Try / catch

info, err := convert.FriendDB2Pb(ctx, friendDB)
if err != nil {
	if strings.HasPrefix(err.Error(), "user not found:") {
		log.ZWarn(ctx, "orphan friend row, skipping", err)
		return nil // skip instead of failing whole list
	}
	return err
}

Prevention

Enable cascade delete of friend rows when a user is removed
Run a periodic orphan-record reconciliation job
Avoid manual deletes from the users table without cleaning friends

When it happens

Trigger: The friends table contains a row whose FriendUserID has no corresponding row in the users table when the friend list is fetched/converted.

Common situations: Manual DB cleanup deleted users but not their friend links; failed/partial cascade delete of a user account; data import/migration inconsistency; replication lag in read replicas.

AI-assisted analysis of openimsdk/open-im-server@175a7bb067 (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ed63bc6581e614cd. Report an issue: GitHub.