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Closing the GENERIC Reader – Error: Transcoding Binary String Fails and Translation Terminates

  • January 6, 2026
  • 3 replies
  • 42 views
francisco_1988
Contributor
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I am encountering an error in FME Workbench when closing the GENERIC Reader. During execution, the translation fails with a transcoding error related to a binary string, and the program terminates unexpectedly. The error message indicates that FME is unable to transcode a binary string containing non-UTF characters (apparently related to a shapefile) into another encoding. As a result, the translation process stops with a “Translation FAILED” message. This issue occurs consistently and prevents successful completion of the workspace. Any guidance on how to handle encoding or binary data in this scenario would be appreciated.

 

Menssage Log:

NullAttributeMapperFactory (NullAttributeMapperFactory): Transcoding the binary string '1e\xA8\x83\x16\x00\xE8\xBB\xE9\x96\x1DfH\xC0 -\xB12\x1A9:\xC0\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x001\x01\x00\x00\x00\x09\x00\x00\x00shapefile' to another encoding can not be done
OGCGEOPACKAGE writer: Committing transaction of 1451 features to feature types 'AREA_IMOVEL_1'...
Closing the GENERIC Reader
ERROR : Transcoding the binary string '1e\xA8\x83\x16\x00\xE8\xBB\xE9\x96\x1DfH\xC0 -\xB12\x1A9:\xC0\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x001\x01\x00\x00\x00\x09\x00\x00\x00shapefile' to another encoding can not be done
Program Terminating
Translation FAILED.
 

    3 replies

    crystalwang
    Safer
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    • crystalwangSafer
    • Safer
    • January 7, 2026

    Hi ​@francisco_1988,

    Thank you for posting your question on the FME Community, and sorry to hear you’re running into this error.

    To help us narrow down the cause, could you please share the following details if possible?

    • The FME Form version and build you are using
    • A small sample dataset that reproduces the issue, so we can test and attempt to reproduce it on our end
    • Whether the workspace behaves as expected when using the Shapefile Reader instead of the Generic Reader

    Thanks for your patience while we investigate this further!

    francisco_1988
    Contributor
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    • francisco_1988Contributor
    • Author
    • Contributor
    • January 8, 2026

    Hi ​@francisco_1988,

    Thank you for posting your question on the FME Community, and sorry to hear you’re running into this error.

    To help us narrow down the cause, could you please share the following details if possible?

    • The FME Form version and build you are using
    • A small sample dataset that reproduces the issue, so we can test and attempt to reproduce it on our end
    • Whether the workspace behaves as expected when using the Shapefile Reader instead of the Generic Reader

    Thanks for your patience while we investigate this further!

     

    Hello ​@crystalwang !

    FME Information

    Edition: Data Interoperability, Fixed OEM License
    Version: FME(R) 2025.0.0.0 (20250228 - Build 25208 - WIN64)
    OS Locale Name: pt_BR
    OS Encoding: windows-1252
    Process Encoding: UTF-8
    FME API version: 4.0 20240722
    Home Folder: C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Data Interoperability for ArcGIS Pro\
    Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 64-bit (Build 26100)

     

     

    crystalwang
    Safer
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    • crystalwangSafer
    • Safer
    • January 9, 2026

    Hi ​@francisco_1988,

    Thank you for the information!

    It looks like this error may be coming from the GeometryExtractor, which is storing geometry as binary in the _geometry attribute. Downstream, the NullAttributeMapper processes attribute values, but it cannot interpret or transcode binary data. When it encounters the binary geometry, it attempts to treat it as text, which results in the transcoding error you’re seeing.

    There are a few ways to work around this:

    • Exclude _geometry from the NullAttributeMapper by removing it from the Selected Attributes parameter, so the transformer never tries to process the binary value.
    • Store the geometry in a non-binary format.
    • If the binary geometry is required later in the workflow, extract or create the binary only where it’s needed, and remove the _geometry attribute immediately afterward so it doesn’t pass through transformers that expect text.

    These approaches prevent binary data from being passed into transformers that can’t handle it. Let me know if this helps!

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