In order to make your issue reports as actionable as possible, please provide the following information, depending on the issue type.

Bug report

For bug reports, provide this information, please:

What Debezium connector do you use and what version?

3.3.1.Final

What is the connector configuration?

Customer configuration, will not expose here

What is the captured database version and mode of deployment?

(E.g. on-premises, with a specific cloud provider, etc.)

not relevant

What behavior do you expect?

When restarting a failed task (where previously task may fail before error handler is initialized), getErrorHandler should not throw NPE and proceed with the restart. 

What behavior do you see?

When task failed before error handler is initialized and then try to restart the task, getErrorHandler throws NPE

Do you see the same behaviour using the latest released Debezium version?

(Ideally, also verify with latest Alpha/Beta/CR version)

Yes

Do you have the connector logs, ideally from start till finish?

(You might be asked later to provide DEBUG/TRACE level log)
2025-11-17T22:36:34.821779Z Failed to start connector, will re-attempt during polling. Exception:org.apache.kafka.connect.errors.RetriableException: Couldn't obtain encoding for database
at io.debezium.connector.postgresql.PostgresConnectorTask.start(PostgresConnectorTask.java:100)
at io.debezium.connector.common.BaseSourceTask.start(BaseSourceTask.java:261)
at org.apache.kafka.connect.runtime.AbstractWorkerSourceTask.initializeAndStart(AbstractWorkerSourceTask.java:280)
at org.apache.kafka.connect.runtime.WorkerTask.doRun(WorkerTask.java:202)
at org.apache.kafka.connect.runtime.WorkerTask.run(WorkerTask.java:259)
at org.apache.kafka.connect.runtime.AbstractWorkerSourceTask.run(AbstractWorkerSourceTask.java:77)
at org.apache.kafka.connect.runtime.isolation.Plugins.lambda$withClassLoader$1(Plugins.java:236)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:539)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1136)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:635)
at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:840)
Caused by: io.debezium.DebeziumException: Couldn't obtain encoding for database postgres
at io.debezium.connector.postgresql.connection.PostgresConnection.getDatabaseCharset(PostgresConnection.java:602)
at io.debezium.connector.postgresql.PostgresConnectorTask.start(PostgresConnectorTask.java:97)
... 11 more
Caused by: org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: The connection attempt failed.
at org.postgresql.core.v3.ConnectionFactoryImpl.openConnectionImpl(ConnectionFactoryImpl.java:385)
at org.postgresql.core.ConnectionFactory.openConnection(ConnectionFactory.java:57)
at org.postgresql.jdbc.PgConnection.<init>(PgConnection.java:277)
at org.postgresql.Driver.makeConnection(Driver.java:448)
at org.postgresql.Driver.connect(Driver.java:298)
at io.debezium.jdbc.JdbcConnection.lambda$patternBasedFactory$1(JdbcConnection.java:250)
at io.debezium.jdbc.JdbcConnection$ConnectionFactoryDecorator.connect(JdbcConnection.java:136)
at io.debezium.jdbc.JdbcConnection.establishConnection(JdbcConnection.java:925)
at io.debezium.jdbc.JdbcConnection.connection(JdbcConnection.java:909)
at io.debezium.jdbc.JdbcConnection.connection(JdbcConnection.java:903)
at io.debezium.connector.postgresql.connection.PostgresConnection.getDatabaseCharset(PostgresConnection.java:599)
... 12 more
Caused by: java.net.SocketTimeoutException: Read timed out
at java.base/sun.nio.ch.NioSocketImpl.timedRead(NioSocketImpl.java:288)
at java.base/sun.nio.ch.NioSocketImpl.implRead(NioSocketImpl.java:314)
at java.base/sun.nio.ch.NioSocketImpl.read(NioSocketImpl.java:355)
at java.base/sun.nio.ch.NioSocketImpl$1.read(NioSocketImpl.java:808)
at java.base/java.net.Socket$SocketInputStream.read(Socket.java:966)
at org.postgresql.core.VisibleBufferedInputStream.readMore(VisibleBufferedInputStream.java:192)
at org.postgresql.core.VisibleBufferedInputStream.ensureBytes(VisibleBufferedInputStream.java:159)
at org.postgresql.core.VisibleBufferedInputStream.ensureBytes(VisibleBufferedInputStream.java:144)
at org.postgresql.core.VisibleBufferedInputStream.read(VisibleBufferedInputStream.java:76)
at org.postgresql.core.PGStream.receiveChar(PGStream.java:477)
at org.postgresql.core.v3.ConnectionFactoryImpl.enableSSL(ConnectionFactoryImpl.java:627)
at org.postgresql.core.v3.ConnectionFactoryImpl.tryConnect(ConnectionFactoryImpl.java:207)
at org.postgresql.core.v3.ConnectionFactoryImpl.openConnectionImpl(ConnectionFactoryImpl.java:289)
... 22 more
 
2025-11-17T22:36:34.822089Z WorkerSourceTask{id=my-connector-0} Source task finished initialization and start
2025-11-17T22:36:34.822561Z WorkerSourceTask{id=my-connector-0} Task threw an uncaught and unrecoverable exception. Task is being killed and will not recover until manually restarted Exception:java.lang.NullPointerException
at java.base/java.util.Objects.requireNonNull(Objects.java:209)
at java.base/java.util.Optional.of(Optional.java:113)
at io.debezium.connector.postgresql.PostgresConnectorTask.getErrorHandler(PostgresConnectorTask.java:368)
at io.debezium.connector.common.BaseSourceTask.startIfNeededAndPossible(BaseSourceTask.java:434)
at io.debezium.connector.common.BaseSourceTask.poll(BaseSourceTask.java:326)
at org.apache.kafka.connect.runtime.AbstractWorkerSourceTask.poll_aroundBody0(AbstractWorkerSourceTask.java:469)
at org.apache.kafka.connect.runtime.AbstractWorkerSourceTask.poll_aroundBody1$advice(AbstractWorkerSourceTask.java:40)
at org.apache.kafka.connect.runtime.AbstractWorkerSourceTask.poll(AbstractWorkerSourceTask.java:1)
at org.apache.kafka.connect.runtime.AbstractWorkerSourceTask.execute(AbstractWorkerSourceTask.java:357)
at org.apache.kafka.connect.runtime.WorkerTask.doRun(WorkerTask.java:204)
at org.apache.kafka.connect.runtime.WorkerTask.run(WorkerTask.java:259)
at org.apache.kafka.connect.runtime.AbstractWorkerSourceTask.run(AbstractWorkerSourceTask.java:77)
at org.apache.kafka.connect.runtime.isolation.Plugins.lambda$withClassLoader$1(Plugins.java:236)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:539)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1136)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:635)
at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:840)

How to reproduce the issue using our tutorial deployment?

N/A

Feature request or enhancement

For feature requests or enhancements, provide this information, please:

Which use case/requirement will be addressed by the proposed feature?

<Your answer>

Implementation ideas (optional)

<Your answer>