I receive the message ‘unexpected error argument out of range’ in no consistent predictable pattern. Usually I just click ‘send report’ and move on.
Most recently in trying to edit a citation when I clicked on the citation the box turned orange, does not present the citation for editing, and does not allow me to close or cancel. The X in upper right does not work. An Add Citation box is stuck on top, cancel does not close it, but when I click ok it gives me the unexpected error argument out of range. I hope someone monitors the error reports, there will be plenty of them.
Meanwhile I have to use task manager to quit RootsMagic. Frustrating.
1 Like
RootsMagic Help If it is customer service hours there is a “Chat Now” button in lower right-hand corner. Out of hours, the same button will bring up the option to send a message.
Thank you, I do not see a ‘chat now’ button in lower right. I see an ‘online support’ button that goes to various help topics. The help page says it is for ‘paid customers’ - is this something other than just buying the software?
See the button in the very lower right, here. it might say “chat” if open or “leave a message” outside customer support hours.
1 Like
Ok, thank you. I do see that ‘Leave a Message’ button when I use Firefox or Edge- for some reason it is blocked on Chrome.
Do you have RM7? If so, I suggest you use it to get work done on your database without the grief you’re having with RM8. I’ve developed a procedure to import the data from RM8 into RM7.
https://sqlitetoolsforrootsmagic.com/direct-import-of-rm8-database-into-rm7-part-2/
I like the fact that RM8 allows reuse of citations, and I want to keep using it for that feature. If it continues to be frustrating, I may go back to RM7; I appreciate the info about your SQL script for that.
I looked into the SQL script for naming citations in RM7 to prepare for RM8, but apparently because I have just used templates provided by the RM program, running that script made no difference in my original RM7 database. I have a ways to go to come up to speed on SQL, and I appreciate the SQLite Tools for Roots Magic web page!
1 Like
Please explain what the message ‘unexpected error argument out of range’ means - not in computereze. Why do we get it and is there anything we can do on our end to avoid getting that error message? That was the kernel of the original question which has not been answered by RM or the other responders to the query. Thanks.
Also just had several of these in quick succession. I was navigating around the person tab family screen.
At first the problem seemed to be repeatable; moving from Dora Fanny Clerk to her father by pressing the ‘>’ next to his name caused the problem but moving to other people did not. The one time moving from him to her created the same problem and then moving from her to him no longer created the problem.
After closing and re-starting RM9 the issue seems to have gone away. I haven’t been prompted to file an error report.
Alan
Just had another one of these.
At the time, I was moving down the ‘Index’ in the bottom left frame. You will see that the index is filtered on a group. This group is constructed using a saved criterion, namely that number of spouses >= 2. I had been doing this for some time with no problem before the problem did in fact arise.
I should add that RM did not freeze when the error message appeared, either this time or in the previous instance that I posted about. However, after first getting the problem, it then came up repeatedly when doing the same thing, sometimes on the same record, sometimes not. After closing and then restarting RM9, I continued with the same process without any problems.
Alan
If you open a support ticket we need exact steps that will always reproduce it and a backup of the database to test with.
@AlanWatson I am sure that you are aware of this and didn’t do it right away as you wanted to see if it would continue causing the error BUT for anyone new to RM, when you receive any error, you should close all RM files you have open ( back-up or not is up to you) and then open them again–this however does NOT guarantee that your problem is solved-- you might get the same error message right away or in 30 minutes or 2 hours or none for days
@AlanWatson wanted to ask you-- at anytime that you were working in this file before the error, did you minimize it to the task bar? Just curious
I don’t recall minimizing RM to the taskbar; I usually use alt-tab switch to another programme.
You are of course right to recommend quitting immediately after incurring an error of this kind and right in your guess that I was experimenting before doing so.
As it happens, I had a third instance of this problem last night (again without RM freezing). This time (as the second time) I was scrolling down the index which was filtered on a group - the same group as the previous time. However, I certainly don’t have a sequence of events which will produce the problem consistently.
Alan
Thanks—Sorry should have asked this last time–by any chance were you editing anything when any of these occurred?
Not editing. 1st time moving around the Family Screen by pressing on the < > symbols; 2nd and 3rd time moving between people in the index which was itself filtered on a group defined by a criterion.
Alan
Just happened again. Again not editing. This time moving from Roderick Dennis Greer to his wife Eileen Mary Hopking by clicking on her in the Family Screen
I was doing this while the index was filtered on a group set by criteria.
As before, no system crash.
Alan
(PS. I am using the criterion group to help clear up marriages messed up by Ancestry and have noticed that some operations take c 30 seconds and use a lot of CPU when filtering by a criterion group which they do not when there is no filter or a filter on a freeform group - I plan another post on this subject. I don’t really have any evidence to support this, but I wonder whether the two things are related.)
Edit
Further PS. I can date when I started using criteria groups because it was in response to a post in another thread in this forum. So I now see that my first ‘argument out of range’ error was two days before I created my first criterion group.
My last three ‘argument out of range’ errors have occurred while I have been using a criterion group, but that is most of what I have been doing for the past couple of days, so there is no real evidence directly linking the errors to the use of the group.
Trying to answer @lloydg’ s question directly, suppose that RM calls a pre-programmed piece of code which has options 1, 2 and 3 but it chooses option 4, then that is an argument out of range.
It indicates a bug of some kind.
Unfortunately, none of us seems to have identified exactly what circumstances lead to the error, so we don’t know what to avoid, and presumably the development team has not found where the bug is, and so cannot fix it.
I hope that this is clear enough.
Alan
Sorry @AlanWatson --I should have asked if you were editing or undoing anything such as unlinking- I consider them basically the same thing…
I was going to say that after taking forever to set up a colored group ( my 1st), I couldn’t replicate the problem-- I had some pretty good music on and was FLYING thru the index list AS FAST AS I COULD with no problems-- used the arrows back and forth with no problems
and then BAM!!! It happened and now it happens ( almost always) every 3rd time–once in a while every 2 BUT usually every 3rd — doesn’t matter how I do it
Can do all 3 in list
all 3 using arrows or
I can do 2 in the list and the 3rd using the arrow ( and vice versa) and ARGUMENT OUT OF RANGE shows up
Probably took abt 10 minutes for the 1st one to appear and yes you are right, I was making no changes to the file at all…
As for CPU-- overall is abt 40 % BUT you have to realize that beside having the browser open, I have 4 RM files open, email and Amazon Music running ( which is most of my CPU)-- RM was only running between 1 and 4 %
@rzamor1 – we could open a support ticket on this BUT sending you our databases wouldn’t do any good as once you close out the database, it doesn’t happen again right away–after closing the database, it took me abt another 10 minutes to happen so no idea how many clicks – think you could replicate this problem with any database using a group set up with saved criteria BUT IF you want my file, let me know
I have just had another ‘argument out of range’ error. Of course I had closed the database after the previous error. As before, I was working through trying to find messed up marriages, but this time, like the last few, I was not editing or unlinking when the error occurred; I was just moving down the index (filtered by a criterion group) from one person to the next.
Alan
@AlanWatson Understand Alan-- I went in and just colored a group–no criteria as in the first group at all–just a family line–abt 10 minutes of just clicking the index and using the arrows and it happened again-- of course i was once again clicking on the index fast ( as my hand is killing me from doing this 3 times)
again CPU is low BUT I don’t have a big amount of people in group–