Fixing "No Serializer Found" Error in Hibernate

If you're working with Hibernate in a Spring Boot application and see an error like this:

No serializer found for class org.hibernate.proxy.pojo.bytebuddy.ByteBuddyInterceptor

It means that your application is trying to convert a Hibernate entity into JSON, but Jackson (the JSON library) doesn’t know how to handle Hibernate’s proxy objects.

Don't worry! This blog will help you understand why this happens and how to fix it.

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Why Does This Error Happen?

Hibernate uses lazy loading by default for related entities. This means that when you fetch data from the database, Hibernate doesn’t load everything immediately. Instead, it creates a proxy (a placeholder) until the data is actually needed.

But when Jackson tries to convert this proxy into JSON, it fails because it doesn’t know how to serialize it. That’s when you see this error.

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How to Fix It

1. Ignore Hibernate Proxy Fields

Add this annotation to your entity class to tell Jackson to ignore Hibernate’s internal properties:

import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonIgnoreProperties;

@JsonIgnoreProperties({"hibernateLazyInitializer", "handler"})
@Entity
public class YourEntity {
    // Your fields and methods
}

This prevents Jackson from trying to serialize Hibernate’s internal proxy fields.

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2. Change Fetch Type to EAGER (if necessary)

If the error happens because of a lazy-loaded field, you can change it to eager loading:

@ManyToOne(fetch = FetchType.EAGER)
private Location location;

Warning: Eager loading can affect performance if used on large datasets.

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3. Use DTOs Instead of Entities (Best Practice!)

Instead of returning database entities directly, create Data Transfer Objects (DTOs) and map only the required fields.

Example DTO:

public class LocationDTO {
    private String city;
    private String state;
    // Constructors, getters, and setters
}

Convert Entity to DTO Before Returning:

LocationDTO locationDTO = new LocationDTO(entity.getCity(), entity.getState());
return locationDTO;

This avoids exposing unnecessary fields and proxy objects.

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4. Force Hibernate to Load the Object Before Serialization

If you're dealing with lazy loading, initialize the object before returning it:

YourEntity entity = yourRepository.findById(id).orElseThrow();
Hibernate.initialize(entity.getLocation());

This ensures that the related entity is fully loaded before converting it to JSON.

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5. Ignore Specific Fields in Serialization

If the issue is with a specific field, tell Jackson to ignore it:

@JsonIgnore
private Location location;

This will prevent Jackson from trying to serialize the location field.

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6. Disable Serialization Error in application.properties (Temporary Fix)

If you just want to stop the error without fixing the root cause, you can add this to application.properties:

spring.jackson.serialization.fail-on-empty-beans=false

This is not a recommended solution because it hides the issue instead of fixing it.

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7. Convert Entity to a Map Before Serializing

Instead of returning an entity directly, convert it into a Map:

ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
Map<String, Object> response = mapper.convertValue(entity, new TypeReference<Map<String, Object>>() {});

This helps avoid serialization issues.

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Conclusion

If you get the "No serializer found" error in Hibernate, try these solutions:

• Add @JsonIgnoreProperties
• Change fetch type to EAGER (if needed)
• Use DTOs (Best Practice!)
• Initialize lazy-loaded fields
• Ignore specific fields with @JsonIgnore
• Disable the error (not recommended)
• Convert entity to a Map

Following these methods will help you fix the error and improve your application's performance.