Duplicate Table Submissions Issue, January 2025

Benchling identified an issue where duplicate table submissions occurred under specific conditions. This happened when a network request was interrupted during table submission, causing the table to appear un-submitted in a Notebook Entry even though it had been successfully submitted. As a result, users may have unknowingly resubmitted the table, leading to duplicate objects being created. No data was lost. 

Benchling resolved this issue on 27 January 2025 for non-Validated Cloud tenants.  For Validated Cloud tenants, Patch 2024.4.3, released on 19 February 2025, addressed this issue.

Key Definitions

Structured table - Structured objects in Benchling such as Registration tables, Inventory tables, and Result tables allow data to be submitted in Benchling and preserved in the warehouse. Data submitted through structured tables can also be updated by modifying and re-submitting the data.

What happened

When users update Notebook entries, uninterrupted network communication is required to save data.  As a result of a network connectivity issue, during table submission, Benchling may have failed to confirm successful submissions when network communication was interrupted, leading users to unknowingly re-submit tables and create duplicate entities. The specific conditions for data duplication to occur are listed below:

1. A structured table is submitted
2. A temporary network connectivity issue occurs during the submission
3. A user continues to make edits to the entry during the network connectivity issue, leading to a new Entry Version being created
4. Upon reconnecting, the previously submitted table may appear un-submitted, and users can re-submit the table, under the assumption that the original submission failed

What does this mean for you?

If you used structured tables and experienced intermittent network issues before Benchling patched this issue, you may have encountered duplicate rows or objects due to repeated submissions.

To check if you’ve been affected:

• Review recently submitted tables for duplicate entries.
• Look for unusual or unexpected behaviors during or after submissions.

What Happens Next?

For Non-GxP Clients

Benchling developed a fix to prevent erroneous duplicate data submissions in structured tables. This fix was rolled out on 27 January 2025, ensuring that duplicate submissions due to stale client states will no longer occur.

For GxP Clients

For GxP environments, Benchling addressed this issue in Patch 2024.4.3, released to Validated Cloud Production environments on 19 February 2025. This patch ensures that structured table submissions function correctly and prevents duplicate data submissions moving forward.

Benchling has proactively notified customers with impacted production tenants. If you have questions or believe you have been impacted please contact support@benchling.com.

• Review the impact list: Benchling has compiled a list of impacted structured tables that may contain duplicate data from this issue or the previous duplicate table issue. 
  • The impact list was compiled by searching for audit log anomalies, so you may notice an overlap between the two lists. You should request the impact list from support@benchling.com to assess whether your data has been affected
    
    
• Assess Impact: Benchling recommends reviewing all impacted data with your compliance team and can provide a list of impacted tables in Notebook entries for you.

Additionally, If duplicate data is not a concern, no action is required, and data can remain as-is. If duplicates need to be addressed, we recommend following the steps outlined below to remediate affected records based on table type.

**If you determine that duplicates should be preserved in Benchling, no additional action is required.