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title: The Persistence APIs That Skip the Record Lifecycle
description: Bulk and direct persistence APIs in Active Record such as update_all, delete, delete_all, update_columns, insert_all, and upsert_all bypass parts of the record...
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og:description: Bulk and direct persistence APIs in Active Record such as update_all, delete, delete_all, update_columns, insert_all, and upsert_all bypass parts of the record...
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# The Persistence APIs That Skip the Record Lifecycle

**[RUBYLAND](https://daily.dev/sources/rubyla)** · 12 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

Bulk and direct persistence APIs in Active Record such as update_all, delete, delete_all, update_columns, insert_all, and upsert_all bypass parts of the record lifecycle: validations, callbacks, timestamps, and in-memory synchronization. The piece walks through concrete examples showing missing audit rows, stale updated_at values, stale in-memory objects, optimistic-locking StaleObjectError surprises, and skipped normalization on bulk inserts. It closes with a repair pattern that wraps update_all and insert_all! in a transaction with explicit timestamps and audit writes, arguing developers should choose a persistence method based on which lifecycle behaviors the operation actually requires, noting that Rails 8.1 added touch: true support to update_column/update_columns (absent in 8.0 and 7.x).

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://railsrevelry.substack.com/p/persistence-apis-that-skip-the-record-lifecycle>

## Questions this post answers

### Does Rails update_all run model callbacks like after_update?

No. ActiveRecord::Relation#update_all compiles a single SQL UPDATE statement directly against the database without instantiating the affected records, so no callbacks, validations, or automatic timestamp updates run. It type-casts the hash values, increments the optimistic-locking column when applicable, executes the statement, and resets the relation, but it never touches updated_at automatically.

_daily.dev surfaces posts like this for developers debugging why Rails callbacks silently didn't fire._

### What is the difference between Rails destroy and delete methods?

destroy runs the full destroy callback chain and honors dependent association options like dependent: :destroy, loading and destroying child records before marking the receiver destroyed and frozen. delete instead issues a direct SQL DELETE for the receiver's row and then marks it destroyed and frozen, without running destroy callbacks or dependent cleanup, which can leave associated child rows orphaned or trigger a foreign key error.

_Rails developers weighing destroy versus delete for cleanup logic can track these nuances on daily.dev._

### When did Rails add the touch option to update_column and update_columns?

Rails 8.1.0 added a touch: keyword option to update_column and update_columns, allowing timestamp columns to be updated as part of that direct write. The option is unavailable in Rails 8.0 and the 7.x series, including 7.1.3.4, where calling update_columns does not update updated_at unless it is explicitly included in the passed attributes.

_Teams upgrading Rails versions can follow API changes like this one through daily.dev._

## Similar posts on daily.dev

- [ActiveRecord: Consistent delete\_all and update\_all](https://daily.dev/posts/activerecord-consistent-delete-all-and-update-all-qta6unmqw) · RUBYLAND · 0 upvotes · 0 comments
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---

Tags: [#database](https://daily.dev/tags/database), [#ruby](https://daily.dev/tags/ruby), [#rails](https://daily.dev/tags/rails)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-persistence-apis-that-skip-the-record-lifecycle-l3eb62qjm)

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