MALFORMED_ID: bad id salesforce error

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

Salesforce ids are 15 or 18 characters with a 3-letter prefix identifying the object. MALFORMED_ID means the string is not a valid id at all: truncated, padded, a different object's id, or an external key passed where a Salesforce id was expected. Validate the shape before the call.

Error

[ {
  "message" : "malformed id 001ABC",
  "errorCode" : "MALFORMED_ID",
  "fields" : [ "AccountId" ]
} ]

Steps

1. Check the length: 15 or 18 characters. Anything else is malformed. Expected: short or padded strings are caught immediately.
2. Check the 3-letter prefix against the object: 001 is Account, 003 is Contact, 00Q is Lead. Expected: the prefix matches the field's target object.
3. If you stored 15-character ids, convert to 18 with the checksum algorithm or re-query; never hand-extend them. Expected: case-safe ids that survive case-insensitive systems.
4. If the value is an external key (your system's id, not Salesforce's), stop passing it as the Salesforce id; use it in an upsert by external id instead. Expected: the right operation for the right identifier.
5. Add an id-shape check to the agent before any call that takes an id: length 15 or 18, alphanumeric, correct prefix. Expected: malformed ids fail fast locally with a clear message.

When to use

• Deletes, lookups, or updates fail with MALFORMED_ID.
• An agent passes ids scraped from a UI or a spreadsheet where they got truncated.
• Cross-system syncs mix Salesforce ids with external keys.

When not to use

• INSUFFICIENTACCESSONCROSSREFERENCE_ENTITY (valid id, no visibility).
• "record not found" on a well-formed id (deleted or wrong org).

Tool compatibility

• Salesforce REST, SOAP, and Bulk APIs; any call taking an id parameter.
• Data Loader and agent id handling.

Variant phrasings

malformed id on AccountId or OwnerId

Same validation; check prefix and length.

bad id in bulk API results

One row carried a bad id; isolate it from the result file.

Why it happens

Spreadsheets trim leading zeros, UIs display 15-char ids while APIs prefer 18, and sync code confuses external keys with Salesforce ids. The API validates shape strictly.

Edge cases

• 15-char ids are case-sensitive; "001A" and "001a" differ. The 18-char form adds a checksum that makes them case-safe.
• Some tools return ids with whitespace; trim before validating.
• Sandbox and production ids for the "same" record differ; never copy ids across orgs.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_4RJQed6oQ1SMbXYkkihnAQ

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_4RJQed6oQ1SMbXYkkihnAQ

Thread query: "MALFORMED_ID: bad id" salesforce error

TL;DR: Salesforce ids are 15 or 18 characters with a 3-letter prefix identifying the object. MALFORMED_ID means the string is not a valid id at all: truncated, padded, a different object's id, or an external key passed where a Salesforce id was expected. Validate the shape before the call.

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

Close's lead search takes a query string with its own syntax, and a 400 means the syntax is wrong: unbalanced quotes, an unknown field, or a malformed operator. The UI search box is forgiving; the API is not. Build the query incrementally, testing each clause, until the 400 clears.

The query

close.io lead search api 400

Use this when

• Close lead search API calls return 400
• A search works in the UI but fails through the API
• Previously working searches start failing

Not for

• Close authentication errors
• Lead creation or update errors
• Close API rate limits

Steps

1. Start with the simplest query

Search with a single bare term and confirm a 200. Then add clauses one at a time. The clause that introduces the 400 is the broken one. Debugging a ten-clause query all at once is hopeless.

Expected output: a minimal query returning 200.

2. Check field names and operators

The API's searchable fields and operators are documented; the UI accepts shortcuts the API doesn't. Verify each field name and operator against the docs. A renamed custom field breaks searches silently into 400s.

Expected output: every field and operator confirmed in the API docs.

3. Fix quoting and escaping

Multi-word values need quotes, and quotes inside values need escaping. URL-encode the whole query parameter. Unencoded special characters arrive mangled and parse as garbage.

Expected output: the query arriving at Close exactly as constructed.

4. Compare against the UI's actual query

Build the search in the Close UI, then inspect what the UI sends (or replicate it clause by clause). The UI's translation of your intent is the reference implementation.

Expected output: API results matching the UI search results.

Variant phrasings

close api search leads bad request

Step 1's incremental build finds the bad clause fast.

close.io query syntax error

Step 2's field and operator check.

Why it happens

Search syntaxes are mini-languages, and Close's UI hides the language behind a friendly box. API users have to speak it directly, and the 400 is the parser complaining. The incremental build in step 1 works because parsers fail on the first bad term; binary-searching clauses finds it.

Edge cases

• Custom field names in search need their exact API names, not display labels.
• Very broad queries can time out instead of 400ing. Paginate and narrow.
• Search indexes lag writes slightly. A lead created seconds ago may not match yet.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_tFNCNPAaiwjeFWF9lBapCQ

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_tFNCNPAaiwjeFWF9lBapCQ

Thread query: close.io lead search api 400

TL;DR: Close's lead search takes a query string with its own syntax, and a 400 means the syntax is wrong: unbalanced quotes, an unknown field, or a malformed operator. The UI search box is forgiving; the API is not. Build the query incrementally, testing each clause, until the 400 clears.

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

InvalidBatch tells you the job container was fine and one batch inside it was not, so stop restarting the whole sync and go batch hunting. Open the Bulk API job, read the failed batchs own error, and you will usually find a malformed SOQL query, a CSV payload problem, or an unsupported operation in that batch alone. Fix that batch, resubmit only the failed portion, and the health fields land without a risky full reload.

Salesforce Bulk API InvalidBatch failed to process query when syncing account health fields to the CRM

Use this when

• A Salesforce Bulk API job completes with failed batches in InvalidBatch state
• Some account health fields updated and others are stale from the same run
• The same sync worked at smaller volume or with a narrower query

Not for this skill when

• Every batch fails identically from the job creation step, which points at authentication or API version instead
• Single record updates through the UI also fail, suggesting validation rules rather than bulk formatting

Steps

1. Retrieve the job and its batch list through the Bulk API or your integration tool, and capture the state message for each InvalidBatch batch rather than the jobs summary line. The batch-level message names the real problem, such as a malformed query, an invalid field, or a formatting error in the records payload. Verify: the failing batches and their individual messages are listed
2. If the failing batch is a query batch, take its SOQL into Salesforce Workbench or the query editor and run it there unchanged. Bulk query rejects some constructs that interactive SOQL tolerates, including certain aggregate and date literal patterns, and a field renamed in the org breaks every batch that selects it. Fix the query to the Bulk-supported shape and confirm it returns rows in the test. Verify: the corrected query executes in the test tool and returns the expected account set
3. If the failing batch is an update batch, inspect its payload file around the reported row. Common killers are unescaped commas and quotes in CSV, a health score sent as text with locale decimal separators, empty strings sent for numeric fields instead of null markers, and external id values containing characters that break the file structure. Regenerate the payload with a real CSV writer and explicit null handling. Verify: the regenerated payload passes a local parse and row count check matching the source extract
4. Check field level reality in the org. Confirm the health fields exist in this org, the integration profile can edit them, and no new validation rule or duplicate rule rejects the values the sync sends, for example a rule demanding a score reason whenever the score changes. Test one record update through the REST API with the same payload values to surface org-side rejections in plain language. Verify: a single record updates cleanly with the same values, or the org rule blocking it is named
5. Resubmit only the failed batches as a new job, keep the successful batches out of it, and reconcile by counting accounts whose health fields carry todays sync timestamp against the source extract count. Reconcile on counts and samples, not on job status alone. Verify: resubmitted batches complete and the reconciled account count matches the source
6. Harden the sync. Validate payloads against the org schema before submission, split batches by operation and segment so one bad shape cannot poison a whole run, and alert on any batch ending in a failed state with its message attached to the alert so the next occurrence arrives pre-diagnosed. Verify: the pre-flight validation and batch state alert are in place and tested with a deliberately bad batch

Why it happens

A bulk job is a set of independent batches, and Salesforce marks a batch InvalidBatch when its own content cannot be processed, while sibling batches succeed. Integrations that only watch job status either miss the partial failure or retry the entire load, duplicating updates and still failing on the same bad batch. Partial staleness in the health fields is the visible symptom of that one poisoned batch being skipped run after run.

Compatibility: Salesforce Bulk API 1.0 and 2.0 job and batch model, Workbench query testing, and current Salesforce org validation and profile controls.

Variants and edge cases

Salesforce Bulk API InvalidBatch state message meaning

['The meaning-first phrasing. InvalidBatch is a batch-level verdict, so always drill to the batch state message before changing job level settings.']

bulk query batch failed health sync Salesforce

['The query-batch variant. Reproduce the SOQL outside the integration first, it is the fastest way to separate query problems from payload problems.']

bulk update CSV batch invalid account health fields

['The payload variant, usually escaping or type formatting. Diff a failing row against a succeeding row from the same file to spot the pattern quickly.']

Edge cases to work through before you close the incident:

• Bulk API 1.0 and 2.0 differ in how jobs, batches, and errors surface. Confirm which version your integration uses before following menu paths or endpoint shapes.
• Hard delete and some operations need special permissions and behave differently in batches. Keep operation types in separate jobs so their failures stay legible.
• External id fields with case-sensitive values can match a different record than intended. Sample-check updated records by account name, not only by counts.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_34lWpGqYaxlOXo9SNbsa7Q

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_34lWpGqYaxlOXo9SNbsa7Q

Thread query: Salesforce Bulk API InvalidBatch failed to process query when syncing account health fields to the CRM

TL;DR: InvalidBatch tells you the job container was fine and one batch inside it was not, so stop restarting the whole sync and go batch hunting. Open the Bulk API job, read the failed batchs own error, and you will usually find a malformed SOQL query, a CSV payload problem, or an unsupported operation in that batch alone. Fix that batch, resubmit only the failed portion, and the health fields land without a risky full reload.