Forum — Comments and Suggestions

online NBN Record Cleaner query

null@example.com (FNRCinfoassist) — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 15:42:50 +0000

Hello,
I am wondering if everyone is using the online Record Cleaner via the BRC https://www.brc.ac.uk/record_cleaner?

I have had a few record cleaner messages returned that suggest the same species (in this case Lutra lutra) is given different ID difficulties by different groups? ie ID difficulty 3 by the Mammal Soc. and ID difficulty 1 by the Marine Biological Assoc.! Seems odd that the same species has different iD difficulties. I believe the Record Cleaner defaults to the most difficult but I am just guessing. Anyone else had this experience?

Is there an official contact at BRC for these kind of queries?

Thank you
Mhairi

online NBN Record Cleaner access denied?

null@example.com (FNRCinfoassist) — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 10:03:37 +0000

I have recently been using the online version of the NBN Record Cleaner, when it came to the part where I can click on the verification file (to download) I got the message "Access denied you are not authorised" has anyone else seen this? It is strange as it let me do a different set of data earlier in the day with no problems. As it wouldn't give me the file I reverted to using the desktop version of the cleaner but this is not a good solution. Any ideas? Should I post any problems with the online Record Cleaner to BRC?
Mhairi

Moth rules - Mythimna favicolor (Mathew's Wainscot)

null@example.com (nmrs) — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 14:29:21 +0000

Hi,

This species was recently synonymised with Mythimna pallens (Common Wainscot). However, it causes an issue with the verbose error reporting which implies there may be something wrong with the synonymy in the Master Species List? Basically, the verbose error for pallens gives the error "Date is outside known flight period of Mythimna favicolor (Mathew's Wainscot) which is clearly incorrect. The same happens with the rules in iRecord.

Is it possible, ideally, to delete the entries in the MSL for favicolor and delete the associated rule, or investigate the issue so the rule stays intact but doesn't corrupt the output error messaging for pallens?

Best wishes,
Les

ID difficulty check box not updating

null@example.com (FNRCinfoassist) — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 10:54:42 +0000

Hello, I am trying, with our IT department help, to install a fresh NBN Record Cleaner tool on a pc that I have RDP access to (remote access link). This way it would be easier to automatically update the software in the one location and others would have access to the cleaner. My IT colleague is having difficulty with this installation. I am testing the multiple attempts and not getting any ID difficulties with the export. What am I doing wrong? When I try to check the ID difficulty boxes they all check fine but the save selected is greyed out and the Next button does not keep the ID difficulty boxes checked. We have tried several times now and still no ID difficulties?

Another observation is that during validation almost every species has two options that I have to choose, the message Non unique scientific name appears and then I have to choose between two very similar (almost identical) taxon names, this would make large spreadsheets very time consuming indeed. Any help/pointers would be appreciated.

Mhairi
Fife Nature

NBN Record Cleaner doesn't start properly

null@example.com (Roisin.TWIC) — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 14:05:11 +0000

Hi There,

NBN Record Cleaner has stopped working on one of our PCs: the error is as shown in the attached .PNG.

## Cannot set column 'DefaultFileLocation'. The value violates the MaxLength limit of this column. ##

After displaying that message it is not possible to load any file in NBN Record Cleaner (the collapsible window is empty). Going Next or Back leads to more blank windows.

I have tried doing a clean install of the software (3 times!), removing any user/custom file as well and rebooting after doing so, but the issue persists.

The colleague that was using the program, said that this happened after loading an excel file with a particularly long file path/name. What surprises me is that the issue is still there, even after removing all traces of the sofware (folders, registry, etc.)...

Can anybody help?

We are using Windows 10 x64.

Record Cleaner version

null@example.com (nmrs) — Thu, 20 May 2021 08:43:02 +0000

Hi there,

I've noticed on your page https://nbn.org.uk/tools-and-resources/ … d-cleaner/ the downloadable version is v1.0.8.4., I have v1.0.8.5 installed. Should v1.0.8.5 be the downloadable version?

Hoverfly Rules

null@example.com (CharlieDarling) — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 15:07:03 +0000

There is a problem with Meliscaeva auricollis flight period rule:-

The end date is before start date - this means that all records for this species are rejected by the Record Cleaner as being outwith the flight period.

Charlie Darling
Biodiversity Data Assistant
Scottish Wildlife Trust

NBN Record Cleaner and Windows 10

null@example.com (Lindsay_FifeNature) — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 09:13:57 +0000

Can anyone let me know their experiences of installing NBN Record Cleaner when using Windows 10? We've just heard that IT are going to rollout Windows 10 to the computers in the Council imminently so it would be really useful to hear from others.

Thanks,
Lindsay

NBN Record Cleaner no longer works?

null@example.com (Janet Simkin) — Sun, 11 Feb 2018 15:58:32 +0000

I have been using the record cleaner regularly over the years to check that our records in R6 are going into the correct VC surveys, and wouldn't be without it.
However, today it suddenly seems to have stopped working. First it couldn't access Recorder, saying that it couldn't login. I tried resetting NBNUser but that didn't help. As a last resort I downloaded and reinstalled the record cleaner. Big mistake! Now I cant get the program to run at all and just get the long string of error messages attached.
A lot of hard work went into developing this program and the rulesets for it, but is it still being supported? If not, is there anything we can do about it?
Janet

Spider Period Rules

null@example.com (CharlieDarling) — Fri, 17 Nov 2017 13:56:42 +0000

In the Spider Recording Rules there are 2 period rules which have StartDate=1110101.
These are Metellina_mengei_Period.txt and Clubiona_reclusa_Period.txt.
This causes all records for these 2 species to be rejected by the Record Cleaner.

Charlie Darling
Scottish Wildlife Trust

Missing Hoverfly Recording Scheme Rule

null@example.com (CharlieDarling) — Thu, 04 May 2017 15:05:45 +0000

Graham,

There are no rules for Eupeodes luniger in the Hoverfly Recording scheme rules.

Charlie Darling
Biodiversity Data Assistant
Scottish Wildlife Trust

Error validating excel spreadsheet

null@example.com (FNRCinfoassist) — Tue, 02 May 2017 10:30:07 +0000

My problem is similar to a previously reported problem in Dec 2014, the solution given previously (change format to TAB) also worked with me. I am posting this to highlight that the original problem is still there. The strange thing is that a colleague managed to put my problem spreadsheet through Record Cleaner without any problems using the same setup? I have also put other spread sheets through successfully. The error message is attached for reference.

Record Cleaner problem

null@example.com (FNRCinfoassist) — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 11:12:34 +0000

The record cleaner cannot check for updated rules? The error text is below, anyone else having problems with this?

The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found.
http://data.nbn.org.uk/recordcleaner/rules/servers.txt

Any help would be appreciated.

Exporting unassessed records as passed...

null@example.com (Lindsay_FifeNature) — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 11:50:48 +0000

Hi all,

We are currently finding that exports of passed records from the NBN Record Cleaner also include records which have not been assessed by any rules. Looking at the updates log, I can see that this was an issue that had been addressed in an update some time ago. We had been having difficulties updating the software due to the IT set up here but it had appeared that this had been resolved - we were under the impression that we were now running the updated version.

So my query is: is the export of unassessed records now just something that is affecting us (presumably indicative of failure of software update) or, is it an ongoing issue also affecting others?

Thanks for your input!
Linds

Won't update post fresh install on Windows 10

null@example.com (nmrs) — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 15:40:31 +0000

Hi Graham,

Frustratingly I 've never managed to get Record Cleaner after an install to update under Windows 10. It just hangs with "Connecting to Remote Server - Please ensure that your Internet connection is active".

It is active and my firewall is configured for both incoming and outgoing traffic for RC. It was installed running as administrator and is running under the same.

Has anyone else struggled here? I had no problems at all under Windows 7.

Many thanks,
Les