intermittent "XXX is not recognized as a valid encoding name. FME Flow 2024?"

Hi ​@virtualcitymatt 

This is definitely an unusual error, and I can't say for certain what's causing it, but here are a few possible explanations:

• As mentioned, your best approach may be to rebuild the workspace in a newer FME version. There is an old known issue that causes similar behavior with older workspaces opened and saved in FME 2021.0 or newer, related to workspace character encoding conflicts. More details can be found here:
  https://support.safe.com/hc/en-us/articles/25407744545677-Known-Issue-Older-Workspaces-Opened-and-Saved-in-FME-2021-0-or-Newer-May-No-Longer-Run-Due-to-Workspace-Character-Encoding-Conflicts

• If you’re using a multi-node deployment, check the jobs folder for any retry subfolders with the same job ID. These can indicate a core restart or a conflict with the distributed engines.

• Is there any security or antivirus software running on the machine? It’s possible, such software could interfere with FME processes at just the wrong time, resulting in unusual or corrupted error messages.

-Dylan

Thanks ​@dylan.at.safe - that would indeed make sense. I didn't have any trouble with FME Server 2022 but I think the link you shared is probably still relevant here. Indeed the encoding on the machine which created the workspace was probably german encoding and is being run on FME Cloud. 

It's just super weird that it's intermittent. 

I'm thinking that it could also be getting corrupted or influenced somehow but another workspace which has already run on the same engine before restarting.