---
updatedAt: 2026-06-18T13:04:29.000Z
agentTools:
  projectIndex: https://docs.polytomic.com/llms.txt
---

# Salesforce — Invalid Reference

### Example warning

*Foreign key external ID: 0000955741 not found for field Some\_Custom\_Field\_\_c in entity Account".*

### Warning description

This happens when Salesforce rejects a record update/create because an invalid value was written to a relationship field.

In Salesforce, it is possible that certain fields contain links to other records. If such a field is setup, it must contain a valid reference to another record. If Salesforce cannot locate a record for the related entity type, and null values are not permitted, this error will be emitted.

### Warning symptoms

* Records contain stale data
* Records do not correctly link to the expected records
* Records are missing

### Other information

It is possible to receive this error if the field does not support nulls (/empty values), but you attempt to write an empty value into it.