* Internal FindMyPast Links Broken

[cjdenbow]

For the last two days every time that I click on a hint link to FMP I get an error message. See below. I wonder if anyone else has been experiencing this behavior. Links to MyHeritage.com from hints are still working fine. I'm tryiing to access FMP from the USA. Thanks for any help you can give me. -- Carl

FMP Error Message.PNG (22.67 KiB) Viewed 2519 times

[JonC]

I have been experiencing the same issues with Family Historian trying to access FMP for several days. I am trying to access the site from the UK and receive the same error message.

There is no problem when I accesss FMP through an external web browser.

[David2416]

I have had that response from the FindMyPast website erratically. I think the website gets rather busy at times.

[cjdenbow]

Thanks for the reponses, folks. For the record, it's still not working today. I also have had this experience in the past, but it's always been short-lived In those cases, if I come back in an hour or so, it'll be working again. It's now been the better part of a week that it's been broken. I bought a subscription to FMP primarily because of its interface with FH. I'm not a happy FMP camper at this juncture!

[jbtapscott]

Have you tried changing the option within FH to have the links open in an external browser rather than the internal FH one?. Not saying this is the answer, but it might give you an idea where the problem lies (and, until you get resolution, would allow you carry on using the links).

[Gowermick]

Brent,
Error 500 is for unexplained problems encountered in the distant server, i.e. at FMP end.
I don’t think there is anything you can do at your end to solve the problem.
As has been said before, most probably FMP overloaded!

[jbtapscott]

Agreed, but given others, myself included, are not seeing this problem (I've been using hints for quite a few hours on each of the last few days via external browser), I thought it worth suggesting.

[tatewise]

Are you all using the same FMP servers?
Remember there are several: findmypast.com in USA, and findmypast.co.uk in UK, and others in Ireland and Australia.

[Jane]

One thing to try is to close FH and then go to

Code: Select all

C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\

and delete the folder

Code: Select all

FH-WebView2

The error is at the FMP past end, but it's possible something has been cached which is confusing the process.

[tatewise]

There are a great many files and sub-folders within that C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\FH-WebView2 folder.
Do they all get automatically recreated as required?

[Jane]

It only contains cache and cookies, so it is no different from clearing your browser cache. Opening the web window will recreate it.

[markvs]

I have had the same problem for the past few days.

I followed the suggestion and shutdown Family Historian and deleted the Calico Pie folder (this was over 5000 items).

Family Historian will not now launch.!

Suggestions?

[tatewise]

Mark, restore the deleted folder from your Recycle Bin.

Jane, this is what is inside my FH-WebView2 folder and appears to be much more than a cache and cookies.
However, it does appear to all get recreated when using FH next time.

FH-WebView2.png (80.93 KiB) Viewed 2283 times

[JonC]

I followed Jane's advice and deleted the EBWebView folder. This has worked for me, I am now able to view FMP hints and the error 500 message is no longer appearing.

Thank you Jane!

[tanglewood]

Hi.

I've got the 'Whoops 500' as well and have tried Jane's solution a number of times without continued success. I get linked for about one hour then 'whoops here we go again'. Not being IT savvy, I'm reluctant to delve too far but have tried deleting caches etc in Google, which made no difference. I've also contacted FamHist but have yet to get a reply. Coincidentally I've just switched to Windows 11 and wonder if this might be affecting things?

I've also contacted FamHist with regard to my subscription having received an email saying I get 20% off if I renew now, which is confusing because my account states that when I renew in December my loyalty discount will be applied. Any thoughts as to how I should approach this as the offer ends on Monday?

Thanks for your time.

Tony G

[DownSouthDrew]

Been having the same "Error 500" problems for the past couple of days.
I found that rejecting the hints worked fine but trying to view them caused the issue.
Read Jane's post, did what was suggested and hey-presto, all is back to normal.

Thank you Jane, all your advice is much appreciated.

[tatewise]

I've also contacted FamHist with regard to my subscription having received an email saying I get 20% off if I renew now, which is confusing because my account states that when I renew in December my loyalty discount will be applied. Any thoughts as to how I should approach this as the offer ends on Monday?

Are you talking about your FindMyPast subscription rather than Family Historian?
See the New FindMyPast Premium Subscription (21043) thread or start a new thread as it is nothing to do with this topic.

[tanglewood]

Yes sorry Mike, got carried away with the frustration over '500'.

TG

[Roberto]

Same problem over last couple of days . Did the "Jane delete folder" fix and all is well in the world again. Thanks Jane.

Cheers
Robert

[OAP78]

Did the "Jane delete folder" suggestion and it worked ok, thanks Jane.
On a reboot of my computer the problem had returned, any suggestions would be very welcome.

[spt53]

I have the same problem. Thought I'd solved it by the 'delete folder' suggestion but after a short time it returns. Any more suggestions - it's very frustrating

[mjashby]

'500' Errors indicate a problem at the Website Server end, so there is unlikely to be anything site users can do, other than report the error and wait for the Site Engineers to resolve whatever the issue is at their end.

See below snipped from Facebook which seems to date back a couple of days.

Screenshot 2022-10-30 at 20.32.48.jpg (174.71 KiB) Viewed 1978 times

When there are problems with Ancestry.co.uk site I can usually log in to one of their other international sites, e.g. Ancestry.com, but I'm not sure if that approach would work with FindMyPast's international sites.

[OAP78]

Following my initial success with Janes suggestion followed by the problem reoccurring after a reboot, I wondered where it could be picking a possibly corrupt file from. I deleted all my backup files and didn't back up on exit.
Tried FH with hints and it works perfectly after a couple of reboots.

[LornaCraig]

... I deleted all my backup files and didn't back up on exit.
Tried FH with hints and it works perfectly after a couple of reboots.

I strongly recommend that you start making backups again! The fact that the hints started to work again after you had deleted all your backups is probably coincidence.

I have sometimes seen the 'Woops' message when using FMP to search directly, without FH running at all. It seems likely that the problem is at the FMP end and we just have to wait for them to sort it out. This is confirmed by the Facebook message mjashby showed in his post.

[Jean001]

I use FMP directly (i.e. without FH) and since last week I have repeatedly had the message, always when trying to access an image. For a while during a session of research all is as normal but after the first occurrence transcriptions remain accessible but not images.