SABnzbd Forums

shypike wrote: SABnzbd is very persistent with retries.
However when it receives an invalid NZB file (like one with "Invalid ID" in it),
it gives up because why retry after such a message?
Like I said we're not very happy about implementing
recovery code for specific sites, because there would be no end to it.

I'll see if some generic improvements can be done.

a manual retry button would be perfect imo

Normally there is one in the History.
Not for "bad nzb", but maybe we can change that.

I'm having this problem all of a sudden also.
I do however believe it has to do with tvnzb.com rather than sabnzbd.

So at the moment i have 5 items pending with " Trying to fetch NZB from http://www.tvnzb.com/nzb/38980" etc.

Now the reason i believe its tvnzb's fault is that if i copy paste the link into a browser about 50% of the time i get "Invalid NZB ID" BUT the other 50% of the times i get asked to download the file.

I'm using the 0.5.1RC2 but I'm not sure how the retries currently work, but a manual "retry" option could be nice.
(If needed i can post logs)

/Kim

Tagden wrote: I'm using the 0.5.1RC2 but I'm not sure how the retries currently work, but a manual "retry" option could be nice.

The "fix" is in RC2. The retry link  is in the History.

Unfortunately, tvnzb has a rather lame "overuse" protection.
If you ask for the same NZB more than 5 times on the same day, you'll be locked out for that NZB.
So when the "invalid NZB id" is a temporary problem, the retries will soon lock you out.
That's also why we don't do auto retries when receiving "bad" NZB files,
but only for timeouts.

I have the same problem with NZBMatrix.

But comparing the url that Sab is trying to get and the one that the rss feed provide are actually different.

The nzb url Sab is trying to fetch is (this is an example):
http://nzbmatrix.com/api-nzb-download.php_id=611813&username=johndoe&apikey=h1347467a74l2t1q12irbb25n67n26c2

While the correct nzb url to fetch is:
http://nzbmatrix.com/api-nzb-download.php?id=611813&username=johndoe&apikey=h1347467a74l2t1q12irbb25n67n26c2

Notice that the "_" instead of the "?".
So Sab is trying to fetch a dead link hence the "Retrieving" problem.

Though I have no idea about the other sites other users have been mentioning (tvnzb, etc...) since I do not use them.

I'm using 0.5.1RC2 btw.

First of all, everyone should immediately forget TVNzb. It's an abandoned website - the site admin hasn't been seen or heard of in months, meaning that while the mods on the forums are doing their best, the infrastructure of the site is crumbling around them and there's little they can do about it. Of particular irritation is their ongoing database issue where, after 50,000 accesses the entire site goes down showing no NZBs (either on the site itself or via RSS) and no forum. A site as popular as TVNzb, well, let's just say that 50,000 hits probably comes around in about ten minutes. Almost certainly that'll be why people using TVNzb are having problems. There seems little point to my mind the devs of SABnzbd devoting any effort to supporting this site while it is in such a state.

NZBMatrix is another matter. I can also confirm the stalled "trying to fetch" issue from NZBMatrix on 0.5.0. I did also see a warning with a cause of "" - helpful! - about it. In my logs, I have an absolute raft of "Restarting crashed urlgrabber", but I'm not sure that's not down to a brief switch back to TVNzb (more in hope than anything - as I said, the reality is that TVNzb just isn't a viable option at the moment with all their problems)

Other than that, as others have said, restarting SABnzb helps sometimes with the NZBMatrix NZBs, other times not.

I will try RC2 shortly, although looking at the above posts it would still seem to be an issue

Like I said we're not very happy about implementing
recovery code for specific sites, because there would be no end to it.

My view that, while I have some sympathy with this as a fellow OSS developer (nothing as well known or as heavily used as SABNzb though!), if you have a reference to a particular site within the app - as you do for NZBMatrix - then it should work reliability, otherwise what's the point of supporting it at all?  If SABnzb and NZBMatrix aren't ever going to be a reliable combination, I'd suggest removing references to it from the app, as otherwise you're just going to confuse users.

weekender wrote: But comparing the url that Sab is trying to get and the one that the rss feed provide are actually different.

It's only a cosmetic error, it does use the '?' character when sending it to nzbmatrix.
The display routine uses the file name filter (which replaces question marks).
That's a bug, but not a fatal one.

I finally caught one of these wretched error situations with nzbmatrix.com.
What SABnzbd received instead of an NZB file is this crap (in HTML even):

>
 
A later manual retry does download the proper NZB file.
As I said earlier, SABnzbd doesn't retry when getting "bad" NZB files, because of possible side-effects.
0.5.1RC2 does give you a working retry link in the history.

Pleaser complain loudly at nzbmatrix too, while we will discuss internally whether we want
to compensate for this crappy behavior.

shypike wrote:Pleaser complain loudly at nzbmatrix too, while we will discuss internally whether we want to compensate for this crappy behavior.

Done

It looks our complaints have been noticed:

http://nzbmatrix.com/forums.php?action= ... 770&page=1

it'll be interesting to see if there's any improvement.

Would it be possible to get access to the pre-release version with the higher timeout? I am also having the same problem with NZBS.org

Thanks

There is no pre-release with a higher timeout.
The timeout is already 60 seconds.
The pre-release 0.5.1RC2 is available from sourceforge.net and it
will create a retry link in the History.

If you mean that nzbs.org is also giving nonsense NZB files, you should complain at their site.

I don't think it is giving nonsense NZBs when I use the link within my browser the nzb is sent straight away. Its jut SAB that seems to have the issue.

Just got the latest version and it seems to be working properly now

Thanks

ekim wrote: I don't think it is giving nonsense NZBs when I use the link within my browser the nzb is sent straight away. Its jut SAB that seems to have the issue.

I don't know what the issue with nzbs.org is,
but nzbmatrix does occasionally send garbage.
Does nzbs.org occasionally not work or not at all?
If it works most of the time, why wouldn't it be a site problem?