Maximo data load errors, decoded

Updated August 7, 2026 · Mathias, LLC

BMXAA0024E — the action is not allowed on object X

This is the most common message on a Maximo load. The full text reads something like this:

BMXAA0024E - The action Add is not allowed on object DOCLINKS.
Verify the business rules for the object and define the
appropriate action for the object.

The phrase "verify the business rules for the object" sends most people to object configuration, conditional expressions, and data restrictions. None of those is the cause.

The spreadsheet is not at fault. The same file loads once the grant exists.

Why the message names an object you were not loading

An object structure is a parent object plus its child objects, and Maximo checks the action against every object in that structure. A work order load can therefore report DOCLINKS, and an asset load can report ASSETMETER. The object named in the message is the one missing the grant. It sits further down the structure than the object you had in mind.

The fix is per-object for the same reason. A grant of INSERT on the work order application does not grant INSERT on the application that owns DOCLINKS.

How to clear it

1. Read the object name out of the message and take it literally. That object is the one Maximo refused.
2. Find the security application that owns the object. Attachments sit under DOCLINKS, and domain values sit under MAXDOMAIN and its child objects.
3. In Security Groups, grant the specific action to the group that the loading account belongs to. Use Insert for ADD, Save for SAVE, and Read for READ.
4. Sign the loading account out and back in. Maximo applies sigoption changes to a new session, and a stale session returns the identical error after a correct fix.
5. Run the load in preview mode before you commit it. See the next section.

The READ variants of the message name objects such as ORGANIZATION, COMPANIES, ITEM, and LABOR. These are the same failure on the retrieval side. A loading tool reads current values before it writes, so that it can show you what will change, and that read needs its own grant.

Quick reference: the codes you will actually see

The message text below is quoted as Maximo emits it, with placeholders in braces. Codes whose message text we could not verify are left out rather than guessed at.

BMXAA5598E needs one note. It is a wrapper rather than a diagnosis: the Integration Framework reporting that an inbound document failed. The message you need is the one printed next to it, so log the whole response rather than the first line.

Preview before you commit

Maximo's file import API validates a load without writing anything. Send the import with a preview header set to 1, and it returns counts instead of changes:

POST oslc/os/mxapimeter?action=importfile&lean=1
preview: 1

(CSV body)

A clean run answers:

{"invaliddoc": 0, "totaldoc": 2, "validdoc": 2, "warningmsg": ""}

A failing run reports what would have happened, with the codes attached, before anything is committed:

{"invaliddoc": 2, "totaldoc": 2, "validdoc": 0,
 "warningmsg": "...BMXAA5598E ... BMXAA0024E - The action ADD
 is not allowed on object METER..."}

Two conditions must be met before a flat-file import will work at all. The object structure must have Support Flat Structure selected, and it must have no alias conflict. Resolve any alias conflict from the first child object down. An XML import does not need the flat structure setting.

Large files can use asynchronous import, available in Maximo 7.6.1.1 and later. It takes async=1 and a unique name, and it returns a polling URL. On completion it offers an error file in the same format as the upload, containing only the failed rows and their messages. Correct those rows and resubmit that file. This is the fastest correction loop Maximo provides natively.

When the data is the problem

Security aside, most rejected rows fail on the mechanics of the target column: length, case, character encoding, or domain.

Length

Maximo truncates or rejects a value on the defined length of the attribute, and those lengths are not consistent between related objects. Here are four attributes from objects that people load constantly:

A job task description holds three times as much text as the job plan description above it. A sheet built by copying one description column between tabs will therefore truncate at the parent.

Case

Maximo upper-cases any attribute typed UPPER on the way in. LOCATION, SITEID, ORGID, and JPNUM are all UPPER, as are most identifier fields. This matters less for the stored value than for your own matching. If the sheet holds pump-01 and Maximo holds PUMP-01, a case-sensitive lookup in the source system treats them as two records and you load a duplicate. Normalize case in the sheet before the load.

Characters that Excel accepts and the API rejects

Several characters survive a spreadsheet and then fail at the API. Smart quotes and apostrophes pasted from Word are the most common. En and em dashes typed where a hyphen was intended behave the same way, as do non-breaking spaces copied from a web page. A trailing space makes PUMP-01 a different key from PUMP-01. A line break inside a cell splits a delimited file. In a delimited file, a comma inside an unqualified value does the same damage, which is what the text qualifier exists to prevent. It defaults to a double quote.

Numeric columns need a number rather than a formatted string, so remove thousands separators, currency symbols, and percent signs. Date columns need one unambiguous format for the whole column. Excel will reformat part of a column without reporting it.

Domains

An attribute backed by a domain accepts only the values in that domain. LOCATIONS.STATUS is bound to LOCASSETSTATUS, and JOBPLAN.STATUS is bound to JOBPLANSTATUS. Synonym domains add one complication: they carry an internal value and an external value that can differ. Load the value Maximo stores, not the label the user sees on screen.

Autokeys, autonumbering, and generated keys

When Maximo generates the key, as it does for autonumbered assets, locations, and work orders, the key does not exist when you build the file. Sequence the load around that.

• Omit the generated key on an insert. A supplied value either collides with the sequence or overwrites it, which leaves the sequence pointing at a number that is already in use. This is also the answer to a question we are asked often: Maximo autonumbering does not reconcile itself with numbers you created manually.
• Refresh the parent before you load the children. After an insert that generated a key, read the record back and copy the real key onto the child rows. Children built against a placeholder key attach to nothing.
• Never write a placeholder into a child's parent-key column. Child rows must carry the parent's real key values. Auto-filling those columns with a generation token is the most common cause of orphaned rows and of children attached to the wrong parent.
• Treat a failed parent as a failed set. If the parent errored, its children did not load, whatever the run reported.

How to read a Maximo error you have never seen

Maximo keeps the codes stable across versions even when it rewords the surrounding text, so the code is the durable thing to search for and to log. This order saves the most time:

1. Take the object name literally. The object in the message is the object that refused the action, even if you were not deliberately writing to it.
2. Separate a security failure from a data failure. A security failure fails every row identically, and a data failure fails some rows and not others. That one observation usually tells you which half of the problem you are in.
3. Find the wrapper and set it aside. Integration Framework errors nest: the outer message reports that a transaction failed, and the inner message says why.
4. Reproduce the failure with a single row. A one-row preview separates a structural problem from a bad-data problem in about a minute.
5. Check the session. After any security change, sign out and back in before you conclude that the change did not work.

If you hit a code this page does not cover, send us the code and the message. We are collecting them, and the ones that come up more than once get added here.