Bulk Update Failures for Nested Attributes in Reltio

Gloria

Updated March 23, 2026 16:06

Overview

When performing bulk updates in Reltio, you may encounter scenarios where jobs show a status of COMPLETED, but some records fail to update. This commonly occurs when updating nested attributes without the required parent structure being present on the entity.

Symptoms

You may observe the following:

Bulk update jobs complete successfully (status = COMPLETED)
Some records fail to update
Task details show:
- objectsFailedToUpdateURIs > 0
- objectsFailedErrors populated

Error message similar to:

AddAttribute ... doesn't have nested or referenced parent attribute in entity

Missing or incomplete data after job execution
No clear indication of failure unless task details are reviewed

Root Cause

This issue occurs when a bulk update attempts to add a child attribute (e.g., ConnectorClassEndB) to an entity where the parent attribute (e.g., ProductCableAssemblyAttributes) does not exist at the time of the update.

Reltio requires that:

Nested attributes must have their parent container present
The system does not automatically create parent attributes when adding child attributes

If the parent is missing, the update fails for that entity.

Example

A bulk update attempts to add:

ProductCableAssemblyAttributes/ConnectorClassEndB

But the entity does not contain:

ProductCableAssemblyAttributes

Result:

The update fails for that entity
The job still shows COMPLETED, but with failed records

How to Diagnose

Check Task Details

Use the task API:

GET /tasks/{taskId}

Review:

objectsFailedToUpdateURIs
objectsFailedErrors

Review Failed Entities

Inspect a failed entity:

GET /entities/{entityId}

Confirm whether the parent attribute exists.

Analyze Activity History

Check if:

The parent attribute was deleted earlier
A later process successfully added the full structure

This indicates a timing or sequencing issue.

Resolution

Option 1: Ensure Parent Exists Before Update

Run a preliminary update to create the parent attribute:
```
ProductCableAssemblyAttributes
```
Then run a second update to populate child attributes

Option 2: Send Full Nested Structure (Recommended)

Instead of updating individual child attributes, send the complete structure:

ProductCableAssemblyAttributes {
  ConnectorClassEndA
  ConnectorClassEndB
  ...
}

This ensures the parent and all children are created together.

Option 3: Reprocess Failed Records

Once the parent structure is present:

Re-run the update for failed entities
Confirm successful processing

Best Practices

To avoid this issue in the future:

Always ensure parent attributes exist before adding child attributes
Avoid mixing delete and add operations for nested structures in the same job
Prefer sending complete nested payloads instead of partial updates
Avoid running concurrent jobs that modify the same attributes
Validate updates on a small sample dataset before large-scale execution

Key Takeaway

A COMPLETED job status does not guarantee all records were successfully updated. Always review task-level details when working with nested attributes to ensure data integrity.

Need Help?

If you continue to experience issues or need help validating your payloads, please contact Reltio Support with:

Task ID(s)
Sample entity ID(s)
Payload used for the update