diff --git a/src/main/java/org/caosdb/server/grpc/EntityTransactionServiceImpl.java b/src/main/java/org/caosdb/server/grpc/EntityTransactionServiceImpl.java
index 50845c5456c98ee59a1b4d1a05bae0e84d712774..315358deacf2d77828add722d29a6c4643acd283 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/caosdb/server/grpc/EntityTransactionServiceImpl.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/caosdb/server/grpc/EntityTransactionServiceImpl.java
@@ -302,7 +302,7 @@ public class EntityTransactionServiceImpl extends EntityTransactionServiceImplBa
     // put inserted/updated/deleted entities back into the response
     for (final EntityInterface entity : container) {
       final IdResponse.Builder idResponse = IdResponse.newBuilder();
-      if (entity.getId() != null) {
+      if (entity.hasId()) {
         idResponse.setId(entity.getId().toString());
       }
       caosdbToGrpc.appendMessages(entity, idResponse);