Author Topic: Excessive URL causing File Not Found errors  (Read 417 times)

John Thomas

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Excessive URL causing File Not Found errors
« on: January 05, 2018, 12:08:19 pm »
Symptoms:
Neither the Play button nor Download link work on an episode's page.
Phone app giving File Not Found error when trying to link episode.

Troubleshooting:
Feed validates just fine.
Podcast and episode pages on blubrry.com appear correctly, with art and text imported correctly.
Direct links on site (not blubrry connected) work.
RSS looks correct - though I'm new enough that it might not be.

Problem found:
The linked URL, as put together for blubrry stats, has too much in it.
The linked URL: http://media.blubrry.com/blackwater/lordblackwater.com/index.php/feed/podcast/lordblackwater.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/the_murk.mp3
A version that works: http://media.blubrry.com/blackwater/lordblackwater.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/the_murk.mp3

So, I need to get rid of that middle lordblackwater.com/index.php/feed/podcast/
It seems I've got something wrong in the settings, but danged if I can find it.

On blubrry.com:
Feed URL: http://lordblackwater.com/index.php/feed/podcast/
Web Site URL: http://lordblackwater.com
On the site:
The file's URL (correct): lordblackwater.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/the_murk.mp3
Podcast feed (correct): http://lordblackwater.com/index.php/feed/podcast/
In PowerPress, Destinations tab, Blubrry Listing URL: https://www.blubrry.com/blackwater/
In PowerPress, Episodes tab, "Media URL (Specify URL to episode's media file)" is checked.

I can't find anything else that could be relevant. Help?

Shawn Thorpe

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Re: Excessive URL causing File Not Found errors
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2018, 02:02:17 pm »
How are you adding the media file URL within the Podcast Episode box? If you're copying/pasting the correct URL, and then that extra URL is being added automatically after that, something on your site is conflicting with PowerPress. Suggestions on how to diagnose conflicts here:
https://create.blubrry.com/resources/powerpress/using-powerpress/diagnosing-feed-andor-player-issues-with-powerpress/

John Thomas

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Re: Excessive URL causing File Not Found errors
« Reply #2 on: January 07, 2018, 12:51:24 am »
I don't know about a Podcast Episode box. That could well be my problem... Where would I find it?

John Thomas

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Re: Excessive URL causing File Not Found errors
« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2018, 01:19:49 am »
Do you mean the Media URL entry under Podcast Episode when adding a new post? That's as close as I found. I used the full URL for the media file, in this case http://lordblackwater.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/the_murk.mp3

Should that be something else?

Shawn Thorpe

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Re: Excessive URL causing File Not Found errors
« Reply #4 on: January 07, 2018, 12:22:50 pm »
Yes, the Media URL field within the Podcast Episode box, that's what I was referring to.

If you're copying/pasting the URL above into the Media URL field, and after you publish the post, the media URL gets all of that extra URL space added to it, there's likely a conflict with either your WordPress theme or a plugin outside of PowerPress. You can diagnose this by following the steps in the support document linked to above.

John Thomas

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Re: Excessive URL causing File Not Found errors
« Reply #5 on: January 09, 2018, 12:40:27 pm »
I've done everything in that now, some more than once. There are no other plugins, it's using the default theme (someone should update the page to say "Twenty Seventeen" as default), Powerpress was deleted and verified that its folder was gone, server is solid and fully up to date. There is no cache set for the server, and the browser cache was cleared at each step.

Powerpress reinstalled, verified it's there and active. It retained the settings from before, but I can't find where it stashed them. RSS podcast-only feed at http://lordblackwater.com/index.php/feed/podcast/ verifies just fine.

Still no idea why any of that would cause the listing at blubrry to concatenate fields which aren't together anywhere else. But it's still happening.
« Last Edit: January 09, 2018, 12:42:49 pm by John Thomas »

Shawn Thorpe

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Re: Excessive URL causing File Not Found errors
« Reply #6 on: January 09, 2018, 01:08:49 pm »
PowerPress settings are stored in your WordPress database. That's why they came back after you deleted/reinstalled the plugin.

I'm going to ask the Blubrry dev team to look at your situation and see if they have any ideas.

Shawn Thorpe

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Re: Excessive URL causing File Not Found errors
« Reply #7 on: January 09, 2018, 03:38:16 pm »
The dev team noticed that the one episode displaying on your site is showing the proper media URL and the correct URL is also showing in your podcast RSS feed. Are you still having the same problem?

John Thomas

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Re: Excessive URL causing File Not Found errors
« Reply #8 on: January 09, 2018, 05:14:08 pm »
Thank you, Shawn: I sincerely appreciate that!

A couple hours ago, as I was trying things following my latest comment here, I removed the Blubrry Podcast Directory from the PowerPress settings > Destinations tab > Podcast Directories, and re-added the podcast to the (at this point only) post on the site. No change showed up at the podcast listing at Blubrry (I don't know how soon that normally happens), but I was able to get it to play on Podcast Addict.

Returning now to the Directory Listing (https://www.blubrry.com/blackwater/), I see that a 2nd instance of the episode has appeared, and is correct in all particulars. The RSS feed (http://lordblackwater.com/index.php/feed/podcast/) has only 1 <item>, which is correct really, so the extra nonfunctional one is a minor problem at worst.

Will removing the Blubrry Podcast Directory kill my ability to get stats through Blubrry? I'd hate to lose it, but again, it's less a problem than my URL oddness.

It looks like the next thing to do is return the various parts to functionality, checking that nothing crashes into Blubrry functionality.

Shawn Thorpe

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Re: Excessive URL causing File Not Found errors
« Reply #9 on: January 09, 2018, 10:15:52 pm »
The Blubrry directory has no impact on anything, really. Log in to your Blubrry Podcaster Dashboard and click the Manage Episodes link. There, you can remove episodes from your listing by clicking the red X next to the episode title.