Odoo RPC Call Failed — 'RPC_ERROR' and JSON-RPC Request Failures Fix

RPC Call Failures in Odoo

RPC (Remote Procedure Call) errors occur both in the Odoo web client and when external applications call Odoo. Common errors:

RPC_ERROR: Odoo Server Error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
AccessError: You are not allowed to access 'Sales Order' (sale.order) records.

XMLRPCError: cannot marshal None unless allow_none is enabled

ConnectionRefusedError: [Errno 111] Connection refused

jsonrpc error: {"code": 200, "message": "Odoo Server Error", "data": {...}}

Fix 1: RPC_ERROR in the Web Client

When you see RPC_ERROR as a notification in the Odoo web interface:

# Step 1: Open browser developer tools (F12)
# Step 2: Go to Console tab — see the full error
# Step 3: Go to Network tab — find the failed request
# Step 4: Click the request — check Response tab for traceback

# The response body contains the actual Python traceback:
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "error": {
    "code": 200,
    "message": "Odoo Server Error",
    "data": {
      "name": "odoo.exceptions.AccessError",
      "debug": "Traceback (most recent call last):...",
      "message": "You are not allowed to access..."
    }
  }
}

Fix 2: Access Rights Errors via RPC

# Error: AccessError for model 'sale.order'
# Cause: the user making the RPC call lacks permissions

# Check user groups
user = env['res.users'].browse(uid)
print(user.groups_id.mapped('name'))

# Fix: add user to the correct group
# Settings > Users > select user > add to 'Sales / User' group

# For API calls, ensure the user has the right access level
# Or use sudo() in your controller (with proper validation):
@http.route('/api/orders', type='json', auth='public')
def get_orders(self, **kwargs):
    # Validate API key first, then sudo
    orders = request.env['sale.order'].sudo().search_read(
        [('state', '=', 'sale')],
        ['name', 'partner_id', 'amount_total'],
        limit=100
    )
    return orders

Fix 3: XML-RPC Connection Issues

import xmlrpc.client

# Common connection errors:
# ConnectionRefusedError — Odoo is not running or wrong port
# ssl.SSLError — HTTPS required but using HTTP
# TimeoutError — Odoo is overloaded or unreachable

# Correct XML-RPC setup:
url = 'https://odoo.example.com'  # Use HTTPS in production
db = 'mydb'
username = 'admin'
password = 'admin_password'  # Or API key

# Authenticate
common = xmlrpc.client.ServerProxy(f'{url}/xmlrpc/2/common')
uid = common.authenticate(db, username, password, {})

if not uid:
    print("Authentication failed — check credentials")
else:
    # Make RPC calls
    models = xmlrpc.client.ServerProxy(f'{url}/xmlrpc/2/object')
    orders = models.execute_kw(
        db, uid, password,
        'sale.order', 'search_read',
        [[('state', '=', 'sale')]],
        {'fields': ['name', 'amount_total'], 'limit': 5}
    )

Fix 4: JSON-RPC Format Errors

# Wrong: missing JSON-RPC envelope
fetch('/web/dataset/call_kw', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
    body: JSON.stringify({
        model: 'sale.order',
        method: 'search_read',
    })
});

// Right: proper JSON-RPC 2.0 format
fetch('/web/dataset/call_kw', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
    body: JSON.stringify({
        jsonrpc: '2.0',
        method: 'call',
        params: {
            model: 'sale.order',
            method: 'search_read',
            args: [[['state', '=', 'sale']]],
            kwargs: {
                fields: ['name', 'amount_total'],
                limit: 5,
            },
        },
    })
});

Fix 5: Session Expired During RPC

# Error: Session expired or invalid
# Cause: session cookie expired or was invalidated

# For web client: simply refresh the page and log in again

# For API integrations: re-authenticate
# JSON-RPC authentication:
const authResponse = await fetch('/web/session/authenticate', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
    body: JSON.stringify({
        jsonrpc: '2.0',
        params: {
            db: 'mydb',
            login: 'admin',
            password: 'password',
        },
    }),
});
// Save the session cookie for subsequent requests

Fix 6: RPC Timeout

# Long-running operations may timeout
# Increase limits in odoo.conf:
limit_time_real = 300   # 5 minutes
limit_time_cpu = 150

# For XML-RPC clients:
import xmlrpc.client
transport = xmlrpc.client.SafeTransport()
transport.timeout = 120  # 2 minutes
models = xmlrpc.client.ServerProxy(
    f'{url}/xmlrpc/2/object',
    transport=transport
)

Debugging RPC Calls

# Enable Odoo debug logging for RPC
# In odoo.conf:
log_level = debug_rpc

# This logs all incoming RPC calls with parameters
# Check /var/log/odoo/odoo.log for the full request details

Prevention

DeployMonkey provides a managed API layer with proper authentication, error handling, and timeout management. The AI agent monitors RPC failures and diagnoses root causes automatically.