Added a book, can't access anything with message "This is a private book"

I originally posted this in FAQ (@ http://www.librarything.com/topic/100863) but was recommended to move it here.

I recently added The Illuminatus! Trilogy via ISBN search. However, if I follow that link (or try to view any reviews, etc), I get sent to problem.php with the message "Problem: This is a private book."

Others report that they can follow that link fine. Someone said to try editing the book and checking the 'private' setting, but clicking edit just takes me to problem.php again.

To add further color:
When I go to porges profile I see we share 8 books. Two of these are The Illuminatus Trilogy and Lullaby.
When I use the link in porges profile for the first of these I see work details fine (actually I'm seeing the copy in my catalog)
When I select the second (Lullaby), I get the

Problem
This is a private book.

page - http://www.librarything.com/problem.php

When I select "See in Library" from porges profile, all I see is the Shea book.

None of my books are private.

Obviously the Shea work and the other 7 are being treated very differently from both porges' perspective and the perspective of other users.

porges do you recall doing any thing different at all for that one work?
Can you recreate this issue with another work?

Hm. I share one book with porges, namely the Hobbit with a URL of http://www.librarything.com/work/3206242/65923725. When I go to that page I get the error message. The funny thing is that this link is actually to a book since it has both work and book numbers (although I don't know why the "book" node is left out). But the other links posted above only had a work number.

ETA: For example, the Lullaby link in msg #2 has only the work number and it works for me, which only makes sense since how can a work be private. So kevmalone, did you copy that link correctly? If you click on that link in your message does it still fail?

3> The link to Lullaby is a touchstone link and, as expected it works.

The link to that work in porges profile (in the group of links to the works I, kevmalone, share with porges) fails in the manner described, and navigates to the "problem" url given.
So the "problem" link is triggered not by the work itself, but by porges copy of that work.

What you (jjwilson61) see when you click on The Hobbit using the link that shows "works jjwilson61 shares with porges" is the "problem" link again.
Maybe this is OK and that's how "private" books are supposed to act (remembering that the "private" book setting is an unreleased feature). But that's not at issue here.

The issue seems to be solely with porges copy of The Illuminatus Trilogy - I can navigate to it via the "works kevmalone shares with porges" link (implying that it's not "private") but porges cannot, implying that it's neither "private" nor "public".

In effect that one solitary work in all of porges library is in some strange limbo where it can be viewed by everyone else except its owner, and that limbo is invisible to everyone but poor porges. :(
(There's got to be a relevant fairy-tale here somewhere!).

porges, what happens when you click this>>>> The Illuminatus Trilogy ? Do you see an error or the work itself?

ETA: clarity

I get "problem" on that link too.

I actually originally imported a bunch of books and then decided to do it manually so I mass deleted them.

I then readded this book... so in my view it's the only book in my collection, and I can't see Lullaby, for example.

Hi porges, is this fixed now? The only book I see in your catalog is now the Illuminatus book, after you deleted everything else, but I can see your copy, not just the work link, so it looks like it's okay?

porges' Profile page still says he has 17 books in his library, although when I go to it there is only one.

8>

I assumed that the profile count was just caching, since he said in #5 that he mass-deleted his books and the Illuminatus book was the only one in his collection

No, there's still something strange going on with porges' catalog. Books you share on porges' profile shows 5 books we share. Clicking on them gives the private book error as reported above. I cannot see any of these books in porges' catalog. However, I can see them in my catalog.

Even if the private book box were checked mistakenly on these it should not be working this way.

I assume that the books we share list is cached as well. So if those could be links to deleted books which should give you some sort of error, but probably not that one. what would be cool is if LT could figure out the reason for the bad link and refresh the Books You Share list immediately. That shouldn't kill the processors since it would only happen when a link to a deleted book is detected.

11> I agree, that would certainly clarify the current situation.

Still borked for me. I notice that on my profile page it still says my collection has 17 books, so I'm guessing this is part of the problem.

Thanks. I found it. The details are boring, but it was a side-effect of the privacy changes. Basically, you added the book twice. You deleted the first one. The privacy settings mistook this for a private book, not a deleted one.

Sorry this took a while. I was in, um, DisneyWorld.

Did you bring back a hat for us?

No. Nor for anyone else. I was planning to bring back trinkets for LT staff, but between feeding and tantrums at the airport, no luck...

Maybe we could start a collection to send me back ;)

"…tantrums at the airport…"

You've got to learn to control your temper, Tim!

Thanks! :)

No dice. It's back.

http://www.librarything.com/work/book/66114356

edit: No wait. It's there now. Hmmm, I swear I saw the "This is a private book." After I added it, I clicked the link on the Add Book column aloing the right and got the error.

Okay, I think I know the problem. It's reading the fact it hasn't arrived on the slave database as if it were private--rather than using the master.

Will fix.

I am seeing this too. I just added a book (using the normal Add Book page and the British Library as a source). For about 30 seconds after adding the book I was unable to edit it; I was sent to the "Problem: This is a private book" page. Which is odd since (i) I did not mark it private AFAIK and (ii) even if I did, surely the effect would be to prevent others seeing it, not me? After about the third try I was able to view and edit it.

Should be fixed.

I just deleted two books on my wishlist and the immediate message upon pressing the delete button from the details page for both was:

"Problem
This is a private book."

I came here to see if there was a problem (not sure what you want for the bug status). I can view the books I just deleted however, and they have been removed from my wishlist. I never marked the book private.

I think the new process is to set the state to Reopened. Needs Discussion was only used in the past because Reopened wasn't one of the choices.

Although I wonder if this new report of a problem should get a net thread instead since the subject says it's when adding a book and the new report is for deleting a book.

I've never seen this bug status choice thingy before (do not frequent this place). I made a new post (thought it seemed a waste of space at first to make a new one...).

Jeremy, the main bug here was solved, right? (What we have left is the delete-then-private bug, right?)

I believe that's right, yes.

Closing.

oh, and how can you be telling me who's winning the debate if you're fixing bugs?

Haha you're watching too :-)

Just encountered this bug.
Entered the book Olympos by manual entry - and now getting the "This is a private book." message when trying to view the work by various means.

P.S. book link http://www.librarything.com/work/12187/book/102562072

Give it 24 hours - usually, when it's right after entering a book, it's because the databases have gotten out of sync.

>31 jjmcgaffey: - I see, thank you.
Lucky I checked the bug tracking talk right after getting the error, so I didn't do anything else like delete and re-add etc, so as not to complicate things.

Will check in after 24 hrs have passed.

Actually, reading further back in this bug - Tim thought he'd fixed the problem after a book was added (though people still get the "this book is private" after it's been deleted). Is it still messed up? How long did the problem last (or when did you last notice it), if it's working now? And when you say "manual entry", which do you mean - the Add Books page where you search for a book, or the Add Manually page where you type in all the data? (A lot of people use manual entry to mean the Add Books page as opposed to importing the book.)

OK. It still goes to error page.

I entered manually - manual entry - not search, not import
right before my post (Post 30)
did not do anything else after that

I can see the book on my "Home" page - it shows with default (blank) cover and title "0" - and leads to the book link which redirects to error page. Can see the book entry in the "Add Book" on the right - same thing when clicking from there and same error message when trying to edit as was mentioned by others here. Basically same bug as before.

So I guess the bug either wasn't completely eradicated or resurrected itself somehow :)

You can try the links to the work and book (my entry) in Post 30.

Thanks

I would suggest communicating directly with staff.

I had a similar problem earlier this year with books seeming to be partially added. That is, some features would indicate that I had the book, but it would not appear in my catalog. I waited for quite some time hoping that the database would right itself and it never did. After I contacted the staff directly they were able to hunt down and fix the problem. I think I initially wrote to Jeremy, who is no longer here. I'm not sure who the best initial contact would be now.

Well, you might try Matt or Loranne - the new Jeremys. Check the Contact link. And yeah, if it hasn't cleared up by now, that bug is back and needs dealing with, so direct contact is the best way to go.

Trying to add a book from search; two attempts resulted in an eror message re "dimensions"; third attempt using Amazon.UK worked. Now have 2 private book entries. When I click on either one, the entry for the successful add appears; deleting removes the good entry and leaves the two bad ones. ???

Sounds like the two "private" books didn't get fully added - that's one reason that the warning about private appears, when one database thinks you have it, and one knows it's been deleted - or in this case, never really added. That usually clears up - the databases get synched - within 24 hours.

If I were you, I'd add the book again (since you say you deleted it) and then leave it all alone until tomorrow and see if it clears up. It might also be helpful to get the wording of the error, but that would presumably leave you with three bad copies - don't know if it would be worthwhile.

If it doesn't clear itself up by tomorrow, you should probably create your own bug (just post a new topic in this group, Bug Collectors). This one's been closed and reopened and fixed and and...it's not on the active list any more, not sure how long it would take one of the developers to see it.