Appfolio common errors

AppFolio Common Errors

Overview

AppFolio's Stack API powers property management integrations for tenant screening, work orders, lease management, and accounting. Each portfolio operates under its own subdomain ({company}.appfolio.com), meaning a single integration may need to handle multiple base URLs. Errors commonly stem from authentication misconfiguration, incorrect base URLs per portfolio, and business logic violations like duplicate tenant records or conflicting lease dates. Tenant lookup failures (404) are the most frequent issue, typically caused by targeting the wrong portfolio subdomain. This reference covers HTTP-level failures, property-management-specific validation errors, and recovery patterns for the most frequently encountered issues.

Error Reference

Code	Message	Cause	Fix
401	Unauthorized	Invalid or rotated client_id/secret pair	Regenerate credentials in AppFolio Stack partner portal
403	Forbidden	Account not approved as Stack partner	Complete partner application at appfolio.com/stack
404	Tenant not found	Wrong portfolio base URL or deleted tenant	Verify base URL is {company}.appfolio.com/api/v1
409	Lease conflict	Overlapping lease dates for same unit	Check existing leases on unit before creating new one
422	Validation failed	Missing required fields on work order or tenant	Include all required fields: unit_id, description, priority
429	Too Many Requests	Exceeded 120 requests/minute limit	Implement exponential backoff starting at 1s delay
500	Internal Server Error	AppFolio platform issue	Retry after 30s; check status.appfolio.com
503	Service Unavailable	Maintenance window (typically weekends)	Retry with backoff; subscribe to maintenance calendar

Error Handler

interface AppFolioError {
  code: number;
  message: string;
  category: "auth" | "rate_limit" | "validation" | "server";
}

function classifyAppFolioError(status: number, body: string): AppFolioError {
  if (status === 401 || status === 403) {
    return { code: status, message: body, category: "auth" };
  }
  if (status === 429) {
    return { code: 429, message: "Rate limit exceeded", category: "rate_limit" };
  }
  if (status === 404 || status === 409 || status === 422) {
    return { code: status, message: body, category: "validation" };
  }
  return { code: status, message: body, category: "server" };
}

Debugging Guide

Authentication Errors

AppFolio uses HTTP Basic Auth with client_id:client_secret. Verify credentials are not URL-encoded. Each portfolio has its own base URL -- confirm you are targeting the correct {company}.appfolio.com subdomain. Credentials rotate on partner approval changes.

Rate Limit Errors

The Stack API enforces 120 requests/minute per API key. Batch tenant lookups instead of individual calls. Use Retry-After header value when present. Bulk endpoints (e.g., /properties?page=1&per_page=100) reduce call count significantly. Rate limits are per-key, not per-portfolio, so multi-portfolio integrations share the same budget.

Validation Errors

Work order creation requires unit_id, description, and priority. Tenant creation requires first_name, last_name, and email. Lease creation fails with 409 if dates overlap an existing active lease on the same unit -- query current leases first. Move-in and move-out dates must be valid ISO 8601 format. Unit IDs are portfolio-specific and cannot be reused across subdomains.

Error Handling

Scenario	Pattern	Recovery
Tenant lookup returns 404	Search by email before creating	Use /tenants?email= endpoint
Work order 422	Missing priority field	Default to normal if unspecified
Lease date conflict	Overlapping active lease	End existing lease before creating new
Bulk import partial failure	Some records rejected	Parse error array, retry failed records only
Auth token expired mid-batch	401 on subsequent calls	Re-authenticate and resume from last offset

Quick Diagnostic

# Verify API connectivity and auth
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" \
  -u "${APPFOLIO_CLIENT_ID}:${APPFOLIO_CLIENT_SECRET}" \
  "${APPFOLIO_BASE_URL}/api/v1/properties"

Resources

• AppFolio Stack API Docs
• AppFolio Status Page

Next Steps

See appfolio-debug-bundle.