JPA CascadeType.ALL Issue: Orphans Not Deleted

When working with JPA and using CascadeType.ALL, it is common to expect that when a parent entity is deleted, all of its related child entities will also be deleted. However, there are cases where this doesn't happen, and orphans are left behind.

The issue usually arises when there are multiple relationships between entities, and some of them are bidirectional. In these cases, the mappedBy attribute must be used to indicate the owning side of the relationship, and this can lead to inconsistencies in the database when not used correctly.

To solve this issue, it is important to ensure that the mappedBy attribute is correctly set for all bidirectional relationships. Additionally, it is recommended to use orphanRemoval=true in the @OneToMany annotation to ensure that any orphaned child entities are deleted when the parent entity is deleted.

Another common issue is the use of FetchType.LAZY, which can prevent child entities from being loaded and therefore not deleted when the parent entity is deleted. To solve this, it is recommended to use FetchType.EAGER or to manually load the child entities before deleting the parent entity.

In summary, when using CascadeType.ALL in JPA, it is important to correctly set the mappedBy attribute for all bidirectional relationships, use orphanRemoval=true, and ensure that child entities are loaded before deleting the parent entity.