HttpMediaTypeNotAcceptableException with spring-boot-starter-data-rest #49265
Description
I'm migrating from Boot 3.5 to 4.0 and I'm getting a warning (HttpMediaTypeNotAcceptableException) when I return ProblemDetail from an @ExceptionHandler:
org.springframework.web.HttpMediaTypeNotAcceptableException: No acceptable representation
The @ExceptionHandler is called twice, this is what bothers me the most. The ProblemDetail response I'm getting is ok.
Click to reveal log entry with stacktrace
2026-02-18T20:15:22.845-08:00 WARN 21978 --- [nio-8080-exec-1] .m.m.a.ExceptionHandlerExceptionResolver : Failure in @ExceptionHandler com.example.demo.DemoApplication$DemoExceptionHandler#onResourceNotFound(IllegalStateException)
org.springframework.web.HttpMediaTypeNotAcceptableException: No acceptable representation
at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.AbstractMessageConverterMethodProcessor.writeWithMessageConverters(AbstractMessageConverterMethodProcessor.java:367) ~[spring-webmvc-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.HttpEntityMethodProcessor.handleReturnValue(HttpEntityMethodProcessor.java:261) ~[spring-webmvc-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at org.springframework.web.method.support.HandlerMethodReturnValueHandlerComposite.handleReturnValue(HandlerMethodReturnValueHandlerComposite.java:78) ~[spring-web-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.ServletInvocableHandlerMethod.invokeAndHandle(ServletInvocableHandlerMethod.java:135) ~[spring-webmvc-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.ExceptionHandlerExceptionResolver.doResolveHandlerMethodException(ExceptionHandlerExceptionResolver.java:460) ~[spring-webmvc-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.AbstractHandlerMethodExceptionResolver.doResolveException(AbstractHandlerMethodExceptionResolver.java:72) ~[spring-webmvc-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.AbstractHandlerExceptionResolver.resolveException(AbstractHandlerExceptionResolver.java:176) ~[spring-webmvc-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.HandlerExceptionResolverComposite.resolveException(HandlerExceptionResolverComposite.java:78) ~[spring-webmvc-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.processHandlerException(DispatcherServlet.java:1227) ~[spring-webmvc-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.processDispatchResult(DispatcherServlet.java:1035) ~[spring-webmvc-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:980) ~[spring-webmvc-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:866) ~[spring-webmvc-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:1003) ~[spring-webmvc-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet(FrameworkServlet.java:892) ~[spring-webmvc-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at jakarta.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:622) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:6.1]
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.service(FrameworkServlet.java:874) ~[spring-webmvc-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at jakarta.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:710) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:6.1]
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:128) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53) ~[tomcat-embed-websocket-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:107) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.springframework.web.filter.RequestContextFilter.doFilterInternal(RequestContextFilter.java:100) ~[spring-web-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:116) ~[spring-web-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:107) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.springframework.web.filter.FormContentFilter.doFilterInternal(FormContentFilter.java:93) ~[spring-web-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:116) ~[spring-web-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:107) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.springframework.web.filter.CharacterEncodingFilter.doFilterInternal(CharacterEncodingFilter.java:199) ~[spring-web-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:116) ~[spring-web-7.0.3.jar:7.0.3]
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:107) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:165) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:77) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:482) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:113) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:83) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:72) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:341) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.service(Http11Processor.java:397) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProcessorLight.process(AbstractProcessorLight.java:63) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$ConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:903) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1778) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.SocketProcessorBase.run(SocketProcessorBase.java:52) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:946) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:480) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:57) ~[tomcat-embed-core-11.0.15.jar:11.0.15]
at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:1474) ~[na:na]
By default, I'm sending Accept: */* but I get the same behavior if I ask for application/json (or application/problem+json). It seems it does not matter if I enable problemdetails or not: spring.mvc.problemdetails.enabled=true. What matters if org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-data-rest is on the classpath or not. If I use org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-webmvc, the issue disappears.
I have a minimal reproducer, if you hit it and look into stdout you should see that:
- It prints out the error message (
Ooops!) twice (before and after the warning with the stacktrace) - There is a warning:
No acceptable representation
If you uncomment spring-boot-starter-webmvc and remove spring-boot-starter-data-rest, it produces the "expected" behavior: no warning and the @ExceptionHandler is only called once. Boot 3.5 has this behaavior if you use org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-data-rest.
Click to reveal reproducer
I'm sorry I'm not attaching a full project but here's a link to initializer with my setup (Java 25, Boot 4.0.2).
build.gradle
plugins {
id 'java'
id 'org.springframework.boot' version '4.0.2'
id 'io.spring.dependency-management' version '1.1.7'
}
repositories {
mavenCentral()
}
dependencies {
// implementation 'org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-webmvc'
implementation 'org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-data-rest'
}DemoApplication.java
package com.example.demo;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
import org.springframework.http.ProblemDetail;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ExceptionHandler;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestControllerAdvice;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.ResponseEntityExceptionHandler;
@SpringBootApplication
class DemoApplication {
static void main(String[] args) {
SpringApplication.run(DemoApplication.class, args);
}
@RestController
static class DemoController {
@GetMapping
String hello() {
throw new IllegalStateException("Ooops!");
}
}
@RestControllerAdvice
static class DemoExceptionHandler extends ResponseEntityExceptionHandler {
@ExceptionHandler(IllegalStateException.class)
ProblemDetail onResourceNotFound(IllegalStateException exception) {
System.out.println(exception.getMessage());
return ProblemDetail.forStatus(HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);
}
}
}I'm not sure if the issue is in fact in Boot I'm guessing it is related to the auto-configuration of message converters/content negotiation.