siyuan-note/siyuan · error

database history contains an invalid value

Error message

database history contains an invalid value

What it means

A parsed database history snapshot contains a nil Value inside one of its fields. Values must all be non-nil for the snapshot to be restorable; a nil value means the serialized history is incomplete or corrupt, so the engine rejects it before any restore attempt.

Solutions

1. Pick a different, intact history snapshot to restore
2. Restore the corrupt history file from a backup copy
3. Generate a new snapshot by editing the database again, then restore from it
4. Check the storage/sync layer for reliability problems if snapshots keep arriving corrupt

function hasValidValues(view) {
  return view.keyValues.every(kv => kv.values.every(v => v));
}

const allValuesPresent = (view) =>
  view.keyValues.every(kv => kv.values && kv.values.every(v => v != null));

When it happens

Trigger: readBoundAttributeViewHistory walking kv.Values where any value pointer is nil — from truncated history writes, interrupted snapshots, or externally modified history data.

Common situations: Interrupted backup/sync while the snapshot was written; corrupted storage; mixing history files from different SiYuan versions with divergent serialization.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

• database back relation value is invalid
• database history contains an invalid field
• database back relation changed since document deletion
• database entry [ ] has a different binding
• database field [ ] changed since document deletion

AI-assisted analysis of siyuan-note/siyuan@9f775e8a12 (2026-09-19). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f49f129732221a4b. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at kernel/model/attribute_view_block_history.go:51

			return nil, err
		}
	} else if util.IsCiphertext(data) {
		return nil, errors.New("encrypted database history has no notebook context")
	}
	view, err := av.ParseAttributeViewData(avID, data)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	if view.ID != avID {
		return nil, errors.New("database history ID does not match its filename")
	}
	for _, kv := range view.KeyValues {
		if kv == nil || kv.Key == nil {
			return nil, errors.New("database history contains an invalid field")
		}
		for _, value := range kv.Values {
			if value == nil {
				return nil, errors.New("database history contains an invalid value")
			}
		}
	}
	if view.GetBlockKeyValues() == nil {
		return nil, errors.New("database history has no primary field")
	}
	for _, layout := range view.Views {
		if layout == nil {
			return nil, errors.New("database history contains an invalid view")
		}
		for _, group := range layout.Groups {
			if group == nil {
				return nil, errors.New("database history contains an invalid group")
			}
		}
	}
	return view, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 9f775e8a12)