diff --git a/src/main/java/org/gcube/contentmanagement/blobstorage/transport/backend/operation/SoftCopyOperator.java b/src/main/java/org/gcube/contentmanagement/blobstorage/transport/backend/operation/SoftCopyOperator.java
index 77b587d..96acf11 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/gcube/contentmanagement/blobstorage/transport/backend/operation/SoftCopyOperator.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/gcube/contentmanagement/blobstorage/transport/backend/operation/SoftCopyOperator.java
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ package org.gcube.contentmanagement.blobstorage.transport.backend.operation;
 
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.net.UnknownHostException;
+import java.util.Objects;
 
 import org.bson.types.ObjectId;
 import org.gcube.contentmanagement.blobstorage.resource.MemoryType;
@@ -217,10 +218,10 @@ public class SoftCopyOperator extends SoftCopy {
 		ObjectId id=null;
 		if(newId == null){
 			id=new ObjectId();
-			logger.debug("generated id for new object link"+id);
+			logger.debug("generated id for new object link "+id);
 		}else{
 			id=newId;
-			logger.debug("restored id for new object link"+id);
+			logger.debug("restored id for new object link "+id);
 		}
 		document.put("_id", id);
 		
@@ -274,11 +275,21 @@ public class SoftCopyOperator extends SoftCopy {
 		searchQuery.put("_id" ,mapId);
 		DBObject mapObject=mongoPrimaryInstance.findCollectionObject(metaCollectionInstance, searchQuery);
 //		BasicDBObject updateObject= new BasicDBObject().append("$inc",new BasicDBObject().append("count", 1));;
-		int count=(int)mapObject.get("count");
-		count++;
-		mapObject.put("count", count);
-//		metaCollectionInstance.update(mapObject, updateObject);
-		metaCollectionInstance.save(mapObject);
+		if(!Objects.isNull(mapObject)) {
+			Object counting=mapObject.get("count");
+			if(Objects.nonNull(counting)) {
+				int count=(int)counting;
+				count++;
+				mapObject.put("count", count);
+			}else {
+				mapObject.put("count", 1);
+			}
+//			metaCollectionInstance.update(mapObject, updateObject);
+			metaCollectionInstance.save(mapObject);
+		}else {
+			logger.error("no object found associated to the following id: "+mapId);
+		}
+
 	}
 
 	private ObjectId getDuplicatesMap(String md5){
@@ -293,8 +304,10 @@ public class SoftCopyOperator extends SoftCopy {
 	private boolean isMap(GridFSDBFile sourceObject) {
 		String type=sourceObject.get("type").toString();
 		logger.debug("object type: "+type);
-		if(type.equals("map"))
+		if(type.equals("map")) {
+			logger.debug("sourceFile is a map: "+sourceObject.toString());
 			return true;
+		}
 		return false;
 	}