passbolt/passbolt_api · error · InternalErrorException

Could not save the action.

Error message

Could not save the action.

What it means

ActionsTable::create() throws this InternalErrorException when save() returns false without producing validation errors on the entity. It indicates an infrastructure-level write failure rather than invalid data.

Solutions

1. Check error.log / DB logs for the real reason save() returned false.
2. Run pending migrations to align the actions table schema.
3. Verify DB connectivity, credentials, and disk space on the database host.
4. Audit plugins for beforeSave/applicationRules returning false without setting entity errors.

Example fix

// before
$actionSaved = $this->save($action);
if (!$actionSaved) {
    throw new InternalErrorException('Could not save the action.');
}
// after
$actionSaved = $this->save($action);
if (!$actionSaved) {
    $this->log('Action save failed: ' . json_encode($action->getErrors()), 'error');
    throw new InternalErrorException('Could not save the action.');
}

try { $this->getConnection()->query('SELECT 1'); } catch (\Throwable $e) { // DB unavailable: skip logging path }

null

try { $action = $actionsTable->create($data); } catch (InternalErrorException $e) { // transient DB failure: retry once, then log and continue
    retry: $action = @$actionsTable->create($data) ?? null;
    if (!$action) { Log::error('Action persistence failed: ' . $e->getMessage()); }
}

When it happens

Trigger: create() called by findOrCreateAction() with valid data, but the INSERT fails: DB connection lost, missing/corrupted actions table, deadlock, or a beforeSave callback returning false without setting errors.

Common situations: Migrations not applied after upgrade; database outage or connection-pool exhaustion during heavy logging; disk-full; custom event listeners aborting save silently.

Related errors

• Could not save the action log.
• Could not save the entity history.
• The data could not be saved. Metadata key could not be…
• New directory settings could not be saved.
• Could not parse the self registration settings found in…

AI-assisted analysis of passbolt/passbolt_api@31c1bbc10f (2026-09-17). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b6f6e100dd1f305e. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/PassboltCe/Log/src/Model/Table/ActionsTable.php:140

        ];

        // Check validation rules.
        $action = $this->buildEntity($data);
        if ($action->getErrors()) {
            throw new ValidationException(__('Could not validate action data.', true), $action, $this);
        }

        /** @var \Passbolt\Log\Model\Entity\Action $actionSaved */
        $actionSaved = $this->save($action);

        // Check for validation errors.
        if ($action->getErrors()) {
            throw new ValidationException(__('Could not validate action data.'), $action, $this);
        }

        // Check for errors while saving.
        if (!$actionSaved) {
            throw new InternalErrorException('Could not save the action.');
        }

        return $actionSaved;
    }

    /**
     * Get cached actions.
     *
     * @return \Cake\Datasource\ResultSetInterface
     */
    public function getCachedActions(): ResultSetInterface
    {
        $actions = $this->find()
                    ->cache(self::CACHE_KEY)
                    ->all();

        return $actions;
    }

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