What causes "Could not save the directory entry." in passbolt/passbolt_api?

Check database server logs for the underlying write error at the time of the sync

passbolt/passbolt_api · critical · InternalErrorException

Could not save the directory entry.

Error message

Could not save the directory entry.

What it means

InternalErrorException thrown by DirectoryEntriesTable::create() when save() returns falsy and no validation errors are present — an unexpected persistence failure (e.g. database constraint violation, connection issue) not attributable to validation.

Solutions

Check database server logs for the underlying write error at the time of the sync
Run migrations to confirm the directory_entries schema matches the code
Verify DB disk space and connection limits
Retry the sync once transient DB issues are resolved

Example fix

null

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

// confirm DB connectivity before sync
$connection = \Cake\Datasource\ConnectionFactoryLocator::get()->get();
$connection->execute('SELECT 1'); // throws early if DB is down

Type guard

null

Try / catch

try {
    $entriesTable->create($data);
} catch (InternalErrorException $e) {
    // no validation errors: persistence failed; check DB logs then retry
    $this->log('Directory entry save failed without validation errors', 'error');
    retryWithBackoff(fn() => $entriesTable->create($data), 2);
}

Prevention

Monitor database disk space and connection limits
Keep migrations current so constraints match the code
Avoid overlapping long sync jobs that hold locks
Alert on DB write errors in logs/error.log

When it happens

Trigger: updateOrCreate() -> create() where $this->save($directoryEntry) returns false with a clean entity: DB write failure, constraint violation, table lock, or connection loss during sync.

Common situations: Database out of disk space or read-only replica; MySQL/Postgres constraint from stale migrations; long-running syncs hitting connection timeouts; locking contention from concurrent sync jobs.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of passbolt/passbolt_api@31c1bbc10f (2026-09-17). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3fa41b57b8d8ffd6. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/PassboltEe/DirectorySync/src/Model/Table/DirectoryEntriesTable.php:238

     */
    public function create(array $data): bool|DirectoryEntry
    {
        // Check validation rules.
        $directoryEntry = $this->buildEntityFromData($data);
        if (!empty($directoryEntry ->getErrors())) {
            throw new ValidationException(__('Could not validate directory entry data.'), $directoryEntry, $this);
        }

        $de = $this->save($directoryEntry);

        // Check for validation errors. (associated models too).
        if (!empty($directoryEntry->getErrors())) {
            throw new ValidationException(__('Could not validate directory entry data.'), $directoryEntry, $this);
        }

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

        return $de;
    }

    /**
     * Find a directory entries if it exist or create one
     * Will update the name if it changed in the directory (example: DN changed)
     *
     * @param array $data data
     * @param string $model model
     * @return \Passbolt\DirectorySync\Model\Entity\DirectoryEntry|array|bool
     */
    public function updateOrCreate(array $data, string $model): array|bool|DirectoryEntry
    {
        try {
            return $this->getConnection()->transactional(
                function () use ($data, $model): DirectoryEntry|bool {

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