Even if i completely remove the if/else and go straight to the update code with a diedump directly afterwards, it reloads the page without notices.

Try with only one field to see if it works

plz show me ur updated code again if can

I found out that it's being caused by the following form field:

{!! Form::text('graduationDate', $user->student->graduationDate ? $user->student->graduationDate->format('d-m-Y') : null, ['class' => 'form-control datepicker', 'data-date-format' => 'dd-mm-yyyy', 'placeholder' => 'DD-MM-JJ']) !!}

If i comment that field out, the query works! So the question is, is there something wrong with the form field, or is it due to the following in my student model:

    public function setGraduationDateAttribute($value)
    {
        $this->setAttribute('graduationDate', $value ? $value : null);
    }

try this. $this->attributes['graduationDate'] = $value ? $value : null;

Thanks a bunch, that finally made it all work. Although inside the request i also added this to transform the date format.

if ($this->input('graduationDate'))
        {
            $this->request->add([
                'graduationDate' => Carbon::createFromFormat('d-m-Y', $this->input('graduationDate')),
            ]);
        }

Thanks a bunch, that finally made it all work. Although inside the request i also added this to transform the date format.

Put this in your mutator it is cleaner

This will be better rather than adding logic in ur controller. read hear http://laravel.com/docs/master/eloquent-mutators#accessors-and-mutators

public function setGraduationDateAttribute($value)
    {
       if($value){
        $this->attributes['graduationDate']=Carbon::createFromFormat('d-m-Y', $value);  
    }
}