Error message when People selected in TV view web client

[tanStaafl 8]

Using server version 3.0.5031.21343

 

Using the web client when I select TV and then People from the top bar, I get a popup that lasts just a few seconds. It reads

 

"The specified file name, file path or both are too long. The fully qualified name must be less than 260 characters" and then nothing below. Clicking on it again does nothing.

 

Nothing out of the ordinary in my setup. Using two drives with two media libraries associated. File structure is all correct that I can see. I have attached the current server log that shows the error.

 

Appreciate any help here.

 

Regards.

server-63517583249.log

[ebr 14959]

Look in your IBN people directory for a folder name that is ridiculous.  Sometimes the metadata can get a crazy entry in it that contains either several names of people all stuck together or the name of someone plus the role they played and the episode name, etc.

[Luke 37259]

This will be fixed for the next server release - fixed to not fail the entire page at least.

[tanStaafl 8]

Chief -> only on the 'D's and have found 20+ anomolies.. this is gonna take awhile. You know that Genre cleaner that was released?? How about a People Cleaner :-)

 

Thanks Architect! That will be most helpful!

[tanStaafl 8]

Chief -> cleaned it all up, didn't fix, ran a scan and it put them all back.. guess I'll just wait for the 'fix'. Thanks!

[Luke 37259]

how did you clean up?

[ebr 14959]

Unfortunately, the one causing the problem probably doesn't exist in the file system as the error in question is preventing it.

 

Look to clean up the sources of your metadata where the people are coming from.

[tanStaafl 8]

Been gone so haven't responded.. Architect -> I went to the IBN directory and deleted any and all anomolous entries as Chief suggested. When it ran a scan again it put them back, but even before that it still gave the same error.

 

Chief -> Not sure how to 'clean up your metadata sources' as I am using MB3 for them.

[Luke 37259]

you need to clean them up from the items they appear in, not the ibn folders.

[tanStaafl 8]

Well, maybe I just needed to leave for a couple of days, but now it is all working..??!! Go figger??

[tanStaafl 8]

Ok, so now it is broken again, dunno why.. will just wait for the update fix.

[tanStaafl 8]

Found out an interesting 'quirk' today. If I filter out the guest stars after selecting Actors in TV, everything comes up (except guest stars). So apparently it has something to do with the guest stars.

[CWNashvegas 170]

Found out an interesting 'quirk' today. If I filter out the guest stars after selecting Actors in TV, everything comes up (except guest stars). So apparently it has something to do with the guest stars.

Guest stars have been voted (by me) "Most Likely to Be Formatted Incorrectly". This is true regardless of where your metadata is coming from. It's one field that contains multiple names and separators get fuzzled. This can lead to several people being turned into a few people with really long names, as Ebr indicated up in post #2.

 

I use metabrowser, with guest star info from TVDB and I have to carefully look at the guest star list before saving because I occasionally get an actor named "Rob Smith John Doe Sally Jones Ed Roberts David Brown June Davis".

 

I highly doubt that it's MB3's fault (if it was routinely fuzzling separators, the problem would likely be more widespread) - often the data is either incorrect on the other end or just doesn't come back properly. Fully automated metadata management has some limits and you've hit one. 

 

Luke can only stop the server from choking on the errors, but you're still going to have to find and zap those entries in the metadata. 

 

At this point, since you're using MB3 for your metadata, what I would do is find a few of those bad entries in the IBN folder, make note of the names and then figure out what they are in (either by examining your library or searching their imdb pages for things you recognize as being in your collection). The good news is, the bad data for guest stars tends to be in "clusters"  - a bunch for the same tv show. 

 

Once you find one of the affected episodes, go into your library in the web client, find that episode, click "edit" and then click on the "people" button so see the actors. Delete the bad ones and, if desired, re-add them correctly. Once you're on that page, you can just go down the list and check / fix additional episodes by clicking them in the list on the left - the display will stay on "People" as you go through them, which will speed things up.