spring-projects/spring-framework · error · IllegalStateException

No BeanFactory available anymore (probably due to serializat

Error message

No BeanFactory available anymore (probably due to serialization) - cannot resolve prototype advisor '{}'

What it means

Thrown as IllegalStateException by ProxyFactoryBean.freshAdvisorChain when refreshing a PrototypePlaceholderAdvisor (an interceptor bean declared prototype-scoped) but this.beanFactory is null. Like the other 'No BeanFactory available anymore' errors, this happens because the transient beanFactory is gone after deserialization and the prototype advisor needs to be re-resolved from the factory.

Source

Thrown at spring-aop/src/main/java/org/springframework/aop/framework/ProxyFactoryBean.java:468

	}


	/**
	 * Return an independent advisor chain.
	 * We need to do this every time a new prototype instance is returned,
	 * to return distinct instances of prototype Advisors and Advices.
	 */
	private List<Advisor> freshAdvisorChain() {
		Advisor[] advisors = getAdvisors();
		List<Advisor> freshAdvisors = new ArrayList<>(advisors.length);
		for (Advisor advisor : advisors) {
			if (advisor instanceof PrototypePlaceholderAdvisor ppa) {
				if (logger.isDebugEnabled()) {
					logger.debug("Refreshing bean named '" + ppa.getBeanName() + "'");
				}
				// Replace the placeholder with a fresh prototype instance resulting from a getBean lookup
				if (this.beanFactory == null) {
					throw new IllegalStateException("No BeanFactory available anymore (probably due to " +
							"serialization) - cannot resolve prototype advisor '" + ppa.getBeanName() + "'");
				}
				Object bean = this.beanFactory.getBean(ppa.getBeanName());
				Advisor refreshedAdvisor = namedBeanToAdvisor(bean);
				freshAdvisors.add(refreshedAdvisor);
			}
			else {
				// Add the shared instance.
				freshAdvisors.add(advisor);
			}
		}
		return freshAdvisors;
	}

	/**
	 * Add all global interceptors and pointcuts.
	 */
	private void addGlobalAdvisors(ListableBeanFactory beanFactory, String prefix) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 69bf83ad71)

Solutions

Avoid serializing ProxyFactoryBean / its proxies; re-resolve the bean from the BeanFactory after deserialization.
Switch prototype-scoped advisors to singletons if cross-JVM serialization is needed, so no re-resolution occurs.
Store a key and call getBean(name) on the receiving side instead of shipping the proxy.

Example fix

// before
Object proxy = aopFactoryBean.getObject();
session.setAttribute("p", proxy); // serialize

// after
session.setAttribute("pName", "myPrototypeProxy");
// on read:
Object proxy = appCtx.getBean((String) session.getAttribute("pName"));

Defensive patterns

Strategy: fallback

Validate before calling

// Detect before serializing a prototype-proxy
boolean hasPrototypeAdvisors = Arrays.stream(pfb.getAdvisors())
    .anyMatch(a -> a.getClass().getSimpleName().contains("Placeholder"));
if (hasPrototypeAdvisors) { /* avoid serialization; store name instead */ }

Type guard

static boolean hasPrototypePlaceholders(Advisor[] advisors) {
  return Arrays.stream(advisors).anyMatch(a -> a.getClass().getName().contains("PrototypePlaceholderAdvisor"));
}

Try / catch

try { List<Advisor> fresh = pfb.getAdvisors()...; }
catch (IllegalStateException e) {
  if (e.getMessage().contains("prototype advisor")) { /* re-resolve from BeanFactory */ }
  throw e;
}

Prevention

Use singleton-scoped advisors when proxies must cross serialization boundaries.
Re-resolve prototype proxies from the BeanFactory instead of deserializing them.

When it happens

Trigger: Deserialized ProxyFactoryBean (or a singleton proxy in non-singleton mode) that has prototype-scoped advisors in its chain, then re-creating a prototype instance triggers freshAdvisorChain which hits the null beanFactory at line 467.

Common situations: Session replication / serialization of beans backed by ProxyFactoryBean with prototype advisors; distributed caches holding AOP proxies; restart-from-snapshot features.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of spring-projects/spring-framework@69bf83ad71 (2026-08-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8780defeff42e5bf. Report an issue: GitHub.