From 46538a3052038233e6b3229837e14af30436e114 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Devesh Kolte <deveshkolte@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2026 19:08:40 +0530
Subject: [PATCH] fix(server): store null instead of empty string for person
 name

---
 server/src/database.ts                              |  2 +-
 server/src/dtos/person.dto.ts                       |  4 ++--
 ...3430865849-ConvertPersonNameEmptyStringToNull.ts | 13 +++++++++++++
 server/src/schema/tables/person.table.ts            |  4 ++--
 4 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 server/src/schema/migrations/1783430865849-ConvertPersonNameEmptyStringToNull.ts

diff --git a/server/src/database.ts b/server/src/database.ts
index 1770b9d720..8eb1d43849 100644
--- a/server/src/database.ts
+++ b/server/src/database.ts
@@ -246,7 +246,7 @@ export type Person = {
   updatedAt: Date;
   updateId: string;
   isFavorite: boolean;
-  name: string;
+  name: string | null;
   birthDate: Date | null;
   color: string | null;
   faceAssetId: string | null;
diff --git a/server/src/dtos/person.dto.ts b/server/src/dtos/person.dto.ts
index fa56ded176..e0070a5a0b 100644
--- a/server/src/dtos/person.dto.ts
+++ b/server/src/dtos/person.dto.ts
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ import z from 'zod';
 
 const PersonCreateSchema = z
   .object({
-    name: z.string().optional().describe('Person name'),
+    name: z.string().nullish().transform((val) => (val === '' ? null : val)).describe('Person name'),
     birthDate: z
       .string()
       .meta({ format: 'date' })
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ const PersonSearchSchema = z
 export const PersonResponseSchema = z
   .object({
     id: z.uuidv4().describe('Person ID'),
-    name: z.string().describe('Person name'),
+    name: z.string().nullable().describe('Person name'),
     // TODO: use `isoDateToDate` when using `ZodSerializerDto` on the controllers.
     birthDate: z.string().meta({ format: 'date' }).describe('Person date of birth').nullable(),
     thumbnailPath: z.string().describe('Thumbnail path'),
diff --git a/server/src/schema/migrations/1783430865849-ConvertPersonNameEmptyStringToNull.ts b/server/src/schema/migrations/1783430865849-ConvertPersonNameEmptyStringToNull.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6cd10b72ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/src/schema/migrations/1783430865849-ConvertPersonNameEmptyStringToNull.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+import { Kysely, sql } from 'kysely';
+
+export async function up(db: Kysely<any>): Promise<void> {
+  await sql`ALTER TABLE "person" ALTER COLUMN "name" DROP NOT NULL;`.execute(db);
+  await sql`ALTER TABLE "person" ALTER COLUMN "name" SET DEFAULT NULL;`.execute(db);
+  await sql`UPDATE "person" SET "name" = NULL WHERE "name" = '';`.execute(db);
+}
+
+export async function down(): Promise<void> {
+  await sql`UPDATE "person" SET "name" = '' WHERE "name" IS NULL;`.execute(db);
+  await sql`ALTER TABLE "person" ALTER COLUMN "name" SET DEFAULT '';`.execute(db);
+  await sql`ALTER TABLE "person" ALTER COLUMN "name" SET NOT NULL;`.execute(db);
+}
diff --git a/server/src/schema/tables/person.table.ts b/server/src/schema/tables/person.table.ts
index 35447acfd0..ca3629b87c 100644
--- a/server/src/schema/tables/person.table.ts
+++ b/server/src/schema/tables/person.table.ts
@@ -43,8 +43,8 @@ export class PersonTable {
   @ForeignKeyColumn(() => UserTable, { onDelete: 'CASCADE', onUpdate: 'CASCADE', nullable: false })
   ownerId!: string;
 
-  @Column({ default: '' })
-  name!: Generated<string>;
+  @Column({ nullable: true, default: null })
+  name!: string | null;
 
   @Column({ default: '' })
   thumbnailPath!: Generated<string>;