Netlify-cms: Cannot save changes (API_ERROR: Reference update failed - "UNPUBLISHED_ENTRY_PERSIST_FAILURE")

[Petrolog-IT]

Describe the bug

I am getting an error when I try to save some changes in the CMS of a site deployed on Netlify.
The error I get when I make a change and click the Save button is this: Failed to persist entry: API_ERROR: Reference update failed

To use GitHub as the authentication method for the CMS (so that my GitHub user can login into the CMS), I followed the instructions of the docs. The configuration can be seen here: https://github.com/Petrolog-IT/one-click-hugo-cms/blob/master/site/static/admin/config.yml

backend:
  name: github
  repo: Petrolog-IT/one-click-hugo-cms
  branch: master

As the docs mentioned, I created an OAuth app on GitHub and added the Client ID and Secret in the appropriate settings page of Netlify:

I can login into the CMS of the site deployed on Netlify with the Petrolog-IT GitHub user successfully. I can also delete things from the CMS successfully. But I cannot save any changes.

To Reproduce

Expected behavior

Create a commit with the changes.

Screenshots

Applicable Versions:

• Netlify CMS version: 2.9.7
• Git provider: GitHub
• OS: Ubuntu Xenial 16.04
• Browser version Version 75.0.3770.142
  
• Node.JS version:

CMS configuration

https://github.com/Petrolog-IT/one-click-hugo-cms/blob/master/site/static/admin/config.yml

Additional context

These related issues didn't help:

• https://github.com/netlify/netlify-cms/issues/2461
• https://github.com/netlify/netlify-cms/issues/1187#issuecomment-377320213
• https://github.com/netlify/netlify-cms/issues/1994

[erquhart]

Forked your repo and was able to save changes to existing entries as well as create new ones :/

[Petrolog-IT]

I also managed to do it through a different profile on GitHub, but for some reason it doesn't work with this account.

[robinsingh-bw]

Having the same issue. I can save entries if i disable the editorial workflow though

[jimmyangel]

I am seeing the same exact issue (i.e., UNPUBLISHED_ENTRY_PERSIST_FAILURE). It works with no editorial workflow, but it fails when I enable it.

I am using version 2.10.2-beta.0, but I tried with 2.0.0 and experienced the same problem.

Any clues?

[jimmyangel]

Hi @erquhart, would you be able to point out the possible cause for this problem?

This only happens with editorial_workflow, which I need because I am storing images (and others files) relative to the content.

My repo: https://github.com/jimmyangel/librorojoetv

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[erezrokah]

@Petrolog-IT I can't access the repo in the issue (is it private/deleted?). Also can you share your network traffic?

@jimmyangel Thank you for sharing the repo, do you mind sharing network traffic while getting the error?

[jimmyangel]

Hi @erezrokah, here are the har capture and the console log:

prototipo-librorojoetv.netlify.com.har.txt
prototipo-librorojoetv.netlify.com-1577052063765.log

Thank you very much for your time!

Ricardo

[barthc]

@erezrokah looks like the github api can't create a ref like so refs/heads/cms/home/home the first home is the collection name and the second one is the slug.

[erezrokah]

This is solved by deleting the cms branch from the repo. I remember it from a previous issue. I'll check why having a branch with that name breaks editorial workflow

[barthc]

I tried creating a workflow branch that has collection name and slug the same, and got the same error. For example, collection like so:

collections:
  - name: 'posts' 
    slug: '{{slug}}'

If I type posts on the identifier field so the slug matches the collection name, the error shows.

[erezrokah]

Let me check again as I tried the same thing and it worked

Update: see this pull request https://github.com/erezrokah/librorojoetv/pull/2
And traffic:

[barthc]

Yup, you are right it's a branch issue. I don't have a branch cms/posts/posts but I have branches like cms/posts/posts/some-other-string

[erezrokah]

This is a git restriction when creating branches.
You can easily reproduce locally by doing:

git branch cms
git branch cms/foo

In order to prevent such cases in the future we will need to change our branch naming scheme, possibly as a part of https://github.com/netlify/netlify-cms/issues/1669.

Closing this, @Petrolog-IT please re-open with a link to the repo+network traffic if issue persists.
@robinsingh-bw, @jimmyangel please comment if the workaround of deleting the cms branch doesn't work for you

[tomrutgers]

I added this to the list of API_ERROR solutions and workarounds: https://github.com/netlify/netlify-cms/issues/2827

[jimmyangel]

Hi @erezrokah, I deleted the cms branch and it is working like a charm!

You guys are awesome! Thank you very much for your help.

Happy holidays!