Entry stuck in draft when entry name exceeds 255 characters — silent update failure

[sjsiegel001]

Hello,

I encountered a puzzling error one of our applicants was experiencing and I believe I traced a root cause.

When an entry's name value exceeds 255 characters, $wpdb->update() fails silently under MySQL strict mode (STRICT_TRANS_TABLES), preventing the entire row update — including is_draft, updated_at, and updated_by. This causes entries to become permanently stuck in draft status with no error shown to the user.

The name column on wp_frm_items is varchar(255). When the value exceeds 255 characters, WordPress's $wpdb->update() rejects the entire query under MySQL strict mode rather than just the oversized column — so no columns get updated at all.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Configure a form where the entry title is mapped to a field that can accept long text (e.g., a textarea)
2. Create an entry as a draft where that field value exceeds 255 characters
3. Attempt to submit (finalize) the draft entry
4. The entry remains stuck as a draft — is_draft never changes from 1 to 0

The solution is to truncate the entry name on update to fit the varchar(255) column.

[truongwp]

Hi @sjsiegel001. Thanks for creating this issue.

Can you share the export file of the form? I can't replicate this issue.