pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleException

Mail.Exception.CouldnotFindContactPhoneField

Error message

Mail.Exception.CouldnotFindContactPhoneField

What it means

Thrown by cacheFieldsPosition when the contact-phone field configured in Mail meta cannot be found in the incoming row's RowMeta. Checked only when a contact-phone field is configured; indexOfValue returning -1 throws the KettleException.

Solutions

1. Correct the 'Contact Phone fieldname' setting to match an existing column
2. Guarantee the column upstream (default empty string if needed)
3. Clear the contact-phone field setting if not used

Example fix

// before
meta.setContactPhone("phone_no");
// after
meta.setContactPhone("phone_number");

// ensure the contact-phone field exists when configured
if (!isEmpty(meta.getContactPhone()) && rowMeta.indexOfValue(meta.getContactPhone()) < 0) {
  logError("Contact phone field not in stream: " + meta.getContactPhone());
}

try {
  step.processRow();
} catch (KettleException e) {
  if (e.getMessage().contains("CouldnotFindContactPhoneField")) {
    logError("Contact phone field missing: " + e.getMessage());
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: meta.getContactPhone() is non-empty and data.indexOfContactPhone == -1 after indexOfValue on previousRowMeta.

Common situations: Phone column renamed or dropped upstream; mis-typed field name in the Mail step; conditional upstream logic that sometimes omits the column.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Could not be found', 'does not exist', 'not found in database': the resource-not-found family when an ID, slug, key, or URI lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• Mail.Exception.CouldnotFindContactPersonField
• Mail.Exception.CouldnotFindDestinationBCcField
• Mail.Exception.CouldnotFindDestinationCcField
• Mail.Exception.CouldnotFindDestinationField
• Mail.Exception.CouldnotFindReplyAddressField

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a4ced6a7467dfad4. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/mail/impl/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/mail/Mail.java:334

    if ( !Utils.isEmpty( meta.getContactPerson() ) ) {
      // cache the position of the destination field
      if ( data.indexOfContactPerson < 0 ) {
        String realContactPerson = meta.getContactPerson();
        data.indexOfContactPerson = data.previousRowMeta.indexOfValue( realContactPerson );
        if ( data.indexOfContactPerson < 0 ) {
          throw new KettleException( BaseMessages.getString(
            PKG, "Mail.Exception.CouldnotFindContactPersonField", realContactPerson ) );
        }
      }
    }
    // Contact Phone
    if ( !Utils.isEmpty( meta.getContactPhone() ) ) {
      // cache the position of the destination field
      if ( data.indexOfContactPhone < 0 ) {
        String realContactPhone = meta.getContactPhone();
        data.indexOfContactPhone = data.previousRowMeta.indexOfValue( realContactPhone );
        if ( data.indexOfContactPhone < 0 ) {
          throw new KettleException( BaseMessages.getString(
            PKG, "Mail.Exception.CouldnotFindContactPhoneField", realContactPhone ) );
        }
      }
    }
    // cache the position of the Server field
    if ( data.indexOfServer < 0 ) {
      String realServer = meta.getServer();
      data.indexOfServer = data.previousRowMeta.indexOfValue( realServer );
      if ( data.indexOfServer < 0 ) {
        throw new KettleException( BaseMessages.getString(
          PKG, "Mail.Exception.CouldnotFindServerField", realServer ) );
      }
    }
    // Port
    if ( !Utils.isEmpty( meta.getPort() ) ) {
      // cache the position of the port field
      if ( data.indexOfPort < 0 ) {
        String realPort = meta.getPort();

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