InvalidOperationException could not Find UpdatePanel with ID

Sys.InvalidOperationException: Could not find UpdatePanel with ID ''. If it is being updated dynamically then it must be inside another UpdatePanel.

JavaScript runtime error: Sys.InvalidOperationException: Could not find UpdatePanel with ID ''. If it is being updated dynamically then it must be inside another UpdatePanel

You may be surprise why you are getting this message though your UpdatePanel is very much on the page. Generally this error comes when you are trying to update an UpdatePanel from code behind and that UpdatePanel is inside an element (parent) that has hidden visibility.

Some techies suggest you to use another UpdatePanel as a container of your this UpdatePanel. Keeping in mind that UpdatePanels are the region like PlaceHolders and not like asp.net Panel element.

You may be getting this error due to following causes-

• You are setting the ‘Visible' property of your UpdatePanel's parent element.

•  You are adding user-control(may have UpdatePanel) inside another user-control(have UpdatePanel) using webparts and your child user-control is falling/going outside the scope /body of UpdatePanel of your parent usercontrol.

Consider the below situation, where update panel is inside a td element. <tr> element is being hide (myMyGridViewContainer.Visible = false;) somewhere from code behind code. When update panel is being updated (updMyGridArea.Update();) it doesn't find your UpdatePanel. L

<table>
        <tr>…</tr>
        <tr>…</tr>
        <tr>…</tr>
<tr id="myGridViewContainer" runat="server">
  <td>
      <asp:UpdatePanel ID="updMyGridArea" runat="server" UpdateMode="Conditional">
             <contenttemplate>                
             

             </contenttemplate>
      </asp:UpdatePanel>
      </td>
     </tr>
    </table>

The above code snippet is the one scenario of this error. One easy solution is:  avoid hiding of parent element of your update panel. You can keep a div inside the update panel and play with its visibility.

<tr >
  <td>
<asp:UpdatePanel ID="updMyGridArea" runat="server" UpdateMode="Conditional">
             <contenttemplate>
                   <div id=" myGridViewContainer " runat="server">
                   

                    </div>
             </contenttemplate>
      </asp:UpdatePanel>
      </td>
     </tr>

For the second scenario, (where you may be trying to add some user-controls (it has UpdatePanel) inside other user-control (it also has UpdatePanel) using web parts and your child user-control is falling outside of the parent user-control's UpdatePanel body) just fix the position of elements appropriately.