Moodle in English: Invalid Repository ID error message

Invalid Repository ID error message

by Michael Dyer - Sunday, September 3, 2017, 6:41 PM

Two courses in my Moodle site won't open and present the error message: Invalid repository ID and will not open at all.

Reading Moodle help pages such as https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=233242 it seems that because the course cannot find one or more files in the Moodle Repository the whole course won't open but there is no easy way to identify the problem files. (On any website surely such a case should not disable a whole page and just the file would not work!) I cannot even delete the course to recreate it as the invalid repository ID error even prevents the course from being deleted.

Can anyone tell me how to simply find the files that are the problem and how to delete them? I cannot access the course pages. I see mention of deleting files from mdl_files_reference in https://moodle.org/mod/forum/search.php?id=5&words=&phrase=invalid+repository+ID&notwords=&fullwords=&hfromday=1&hfrommonth=1&hfromyear=1&hfromhour=1&hfromminute=1&htoday=1&htomonth=1&htoyear=1&htohour=1&htominute=1&forumid=&subject=&user= but don't see any guidance as to how to find the file and delete it. I do not know how to add code to anything.

Michael

Re: Invalid Repository ID error message

by Ken Task - Sunday, September 3, 2017, 7:55 PM

It would help to know what version of Moodle. Linux or Windows. And where your Moodle is hosted. As well as if you have anything to interact with the DB (like phpmyadmin) and/or browse files (code and moodledata).

Repositories are places/methods to store files used in moodle.
Actual files uploaded and stored in moodle are in moodledata/filedir ... but they are not humanly recognizable by a file name.

Rather, the meta data in the database for the moodle (table mdl_files) contains
not only it's location in moodledata/filedir but records/provides the file characteristics ... like file size, file name, file type, etc..

Repositories could be any of the places/methods seen in
Manage repositories:
https://yousite/admin/repository.php
where admin could make them active (enabled and visible) as well as set
parameters for them.

File System,Private files, Recent Files, Server files, upload a file, URL downloader,
and WikiMedia are in a typical stock Moodle.
But there are also (depending upon version of Moodle) Box, Legacy course files, Equella, Flicker, Flicker Public, Google Drive, Meriot.org, Picasa Web, Amazon S3,
Microsoft OneDrive, WebDAV and YouTube Videos.

The repos turned on and in use are records in mdl_repository of the database.
The following query of the database for Moodle will show not only the ID if
the repository has been setup and is 'visiable'.

use moodle;
select * from mdl_repository;

Sounds like the those courses used a repo but the repo might be turned off now.

Does turning on Debugging to developer give any more clues ... error lines that
might provide a clue?

'spirit of sharing', Ken

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Re: Invalid Repository ID error message

by Michael Dyer - Sunday, September 3, 2017, 8:51 PM

Hi Ken,

Thank you so much for helping me. I am using Moodle 3.3.1 on a Linux server in the US. There is a cPanel on the account so I can access phpMyAdmin. I am also able to access the repository via ftp.

I have just opened it and gone to the mdl files reference page as I remember reading about that and I have attached a screenshot here. There are 24 references. Should I do something with them? Or is it something else I should be accessing?

The repositories are visible. I have also added a screenhot of the mdl repositories page.

Michael

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Re: Invalid Repository ID error message

by Ken Task - Sunday, September 3, 2017, 11:34 PM

The first screen show is mdl_files_reference table ... not the same as mdl_files table.

Can see they are all videos ... mp4's ... and the repo id on them show the number 12 .... + they have a 'lastsync' that's an epoch time stamp. Many of their names have #.nameofvideo.mp4. There is, however, no repo ID 12.

I guess the #. in their filenames was for your purposes in display ordering them?

Do you re-call if you uploaded the .mp4's to a file system repo via FTP and then linked to them or not/

Let's take just one of the video file names:

2.Being Single.mp4 ... which has a space in it's name .... 2.Being%20Single.mp4.

Use phpmyadmin and query the mdl_files table for the 'filename like '2.Being'. That's just the front of the file name before the space.

Can't show you what it would look like exactly, but the output of looking at mdl_files for that file name should show a 'contenthash' ... bunch of letters and numbers .... looks like

ab04ab04wqsele34lsksksk

The file location is actually in:

moodledata/filedir/ab/04/ and the actual file name is as above.

First 2 characters of the contenthash is a subdirectory of moodledata/filedir/

moodledata/filedir/ab/

The 2nd 2 characters of the contenhash is a subdirectory of the subdirectory above.

moodledata/filedir/ab/04/

Inside the last, a file named thusly:

ab04ab04wqsele34lsksksk

Dunno if your tool that browses files also has a mimetype or get file attributes or not ... but if that was one of those .mp4's it should show that.

Now if you used a file system repo in those courses those files might have been in:

moodledata/repository/[somedirectory] where [somedirectory] may have been something like 'vidoes'.

Did you ever use box or any other remote file system like 'drop box' for the videos? Were these courses using "Legacy files"?

'spirit of sharing', Ken

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Re: Invalid Repository ID error message

by Michael Dyer - Monday, September 4, 2017, 12:32 AM

Hi Ken,

Attached is the mdl files page. Yes, there is mimetype attributes displayed.

I added all files as proxy drawing them from the moodledata folder. Yes, they are named SIL3 Videos and SIL4 Videos for the two courses that are not working. I added files to these folders via ftp and not by any kind of dropbox. As far as I can see, all the files are there in these folders.

I can see all files have a pathnamehash but could you possibly tell me how to locate the problem files in the database? I'm not quite sure what I should be looking for in the mdl files page. Is there something I should do a 'search' for in this page?

Michael

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Re: Invalid Repository ID error message

by Ken Task - Monday, September 4, 2017, 1:22 AM

IF you added the folders/files by FTP then you didn't put them in moodledata/filedir/ AND there might not be a reference in the mdl_files table such as I've described.

Where (specifically) did you upload them on the server? Path?

How did you link to them from Moodle? URL?

Look at:

https://yoursite/admin/repository.php

which do you have enabled and visable on the above page?

That's where the repository ID's are created ... when turning on and making visiable a repo.

Hmmmm .... looks like an issue from 2.3 might be back again!!!!

https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-37757

'spirit of sharing', Ken

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Re: Invalid Repository ID error message

by Michael Dyer - Monday, September 4, 2017, 11:26 AM

Hi Ken,

Thanks to your thoughts I have fixed the issue. Looking at the mdl_repository_instances I saw that the repository ids only went up to 14. Four files in the mdl_files_reference were referencing a repository 15 for some reason. I deleted the references to the mysterious repository 15 and the pages came back up.

Thank you so much for your guidance!

Michael

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