What causes "I couldn't find Notepad with id_note=id_note in the repository." in pentaho/pentaho-kettle?

Verify the id_note exists: SELECT * FROM R_NOTE WHERE ID_NOTE =

pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleException

I couldn't find Notepad with id_note=id_note in the…

Error message

I couldn't find Notepad with id_note=id_note in the repository.

What it means

loadNotePadMeta throws this KettleException when a SELECT by id_note on the R_NOTE table returns no row, meaning the note pad ID does not exist in the repository. It signals a dangling/stale reference rather than a database failure (database errors throw the sibling message at line 98).

Solutions

Verify the id_note exists: SELECT * FROM R_NOTE WHERE ID_NOTE = <id>
Reload the parent transformation/job from the repository to get fresh, valid note IDs
If the note was deleted legitimately, remove/null the dangling note reference before saving
Confirm you are connected to the same repository the ID was obtained from

Example fix

// before
NotePadMeta note = delegate.loadNotePadMeta(idNote);
// after
NotePadMeta note;
try { note = delegate.loadNotePadMeta(idNote); }
catch (KettleException e) {
  log.warn("Note " + idNote + " no longer exists; skipping");
  note = null; // remove stale reference from parent meta
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

RowMetaAndData row = repository.getDatabase().getOneRow("SELECT ID_NOTE FROM R_NOTE WHERE ID_NOTE = ?", idNote.longValue());
if (row == null) throw new IllegalStateException("Note " + idNote + " does not exist");

Type guard

boolean noteExists(KettleDatabaseRepository repo, ObjectId id) { try { return id != null && repo.getNotePadMeta(id) != null; } catch (Exception e) { return false; } }

Try / catch

try { note = delegate.loadNotePadMeta(idNote); } catch (KettleException e) { log.warn("Note " + idNote + " not found — removing stale reference"); note = null; }

Prevention

Reload parent transformation/job metadata before relying on cached note IDs
Catch this exception and prune dangling note references instead of failing
Avoid sharing ObjectIds across different repositories
Handle concurrent edits by re-reading before save

When it happens

Trigger: Calling loadNotePadMeta(id_note) with an id_note that has no corresponding row in R_NOTE — e.g. referencing a note that was deleted by another user/session, or an ID copied from an incompatible repository.

Common situations: Stale cached transformation/job metadata referencing deleted notes; two clients editing the same transformation concurrently; pointing code at a different repository than the IDs came from.

Understand the failure class

Background: Record Not Found Errors: "not found", RecordNotFound, and "was not found" — what they mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/86c906fe2e966255. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at engine/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/repository/kdr/delegates/KettleDatabaseRepositoryNotePadDelegate.java:94

        note.setBackGroundColorGreen( (int) r.getInteger(
          "FONT_BACK_GROUND_COLOR_GREEN", NotePadMeta.COLOR_RGB_DEFAULT_BG_GREEN ) );
        note.setBackGroundColorBlue( (int) r.getInteger(
          "FONT_BACK_GROUND_COLOR_BLUE", NotePadMeta.COLOR_RGB_DEFAULT_BG_BLUE ) );

        // Border color
        note.setBorderColorRed( (int) r.getInteger(
          "FONT_BORDER_COLOR_RED", NotePadMeta.COLOR_RGB_DEFAULT_BORDER_RED ) );
        note.setBorderColorGreen( (int) r.getInteger(
          "FONT_BORDER_COLOR_GREEN", NotePadMeta.COLOR_RGB_DEFAULT_BORDER_GREEN ) );
        note.setBorderColorBlue( (int) r.getInteger(
          "FONT_BORDER_COLOR_BLUE", NotePadMeta.COLOR_RGB_DEFAULT_BORDER_BLUE ) );
        note.setDrawShadow( r.getBoolean( "DRAW_SHADOW", true ) );

        // Done!
        return note;
      } else {
        note.setObjectId( null );
        throw new KettleException( "I couldn't find Notepad with id_note=" + id_note + " in the repository." );
      }
    } catch ( KettleDatabaseException dbe ) {
      note.setObjectId( null );
      throw new KettleException( "Unable to load Notepad from repository (id_note=" + id_note + ")", dbe );
    }
  }

  /**
   *
   * @param rep
   * @param id_transformation
   * @throws KettleException
   */
  public void saveNotePadMeta( NotePadMeta note, ObjectId id_transformation ) throws KettleException {
    try {
      Point location = note.getLocation();
      int x = location == null ? -1 : location.x;
      int y = location == null ? -1 : location.y;

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