Laravel Soft Delete restore() Error

Question

The following soft delete code works fine for me:

$post = Post::find($post_id);
$post->delete();

The deleted_at field is updated. But this gives me an error:

$post = Post::find($post_id);
$post->restore();

Here's the error:

exception 'Symfony\Component\Debug\Exception\FatalErrorException' with message 'Call to a member function restore() on a non-object'

I'm stumped. Google is no help so far.

Answer 1

Error says $post is a non-object, Laravel doesn't return trashed records without withTrashed()

Post::withTrashed()->find($post_id)->restore();

Laravel Docs - Soft Deleting

When querying a model that uses soft deletes, the "deleted" models will not be included...

Answer 2

Another option is to search through the trashed models for a specific ID:

Post::onlyTrashed()->where('id', $post_id)->restore();

Answer 3

Maybe it will be of use to someone in the future. You can easily use restore when on the routing we also download with deleted ones.

Route::post('restore/{exampleModel}', [ExampleController::class, 'restore'])->withTrashed();

public function restore(ExampleModel $exampleModel)
{
        $exampleModel->restore();
}