Error messages using termbases that contain a semi colon in termbase name or folder path

 

Symptom 1: In SDL Trados Studio 2015 (or higher)

The physical termbase name or a folder name where the termbase is stored contains a semi colon character. When you try to open the termbase in SDL Trados Studio by adding a termbase to a project, you get the following error message:

general massive catastrophic system failure
MultiTerm is unable to retrieve the multimeda object


 

Symptom 2: In SDL MultiTerm (all versions) and SDL Trados Studio 2014 (and before)

The physical termbase name or a folder name where the termbase is stored contains a semi colon character. When you try to open the termbase in SDL MultiTerm or add a termbase to a project in Studio, you get the following error message:

This termbase cannot be opened because it has been created with an unsupported version of MultiTerm



You are creating a termbase using the Termbase Wizard. You choose a folder location where one of the folder names in the path contains a semi-colon or you entered a semi-colon in the physical termbase name. When you go through the wizard and you click Finish to create the termbase, you receive the following error message:

MultiTerm is unable to create the termbase. Format of the initialization string does not conform to the OLE DB specification

 

Workaround: Rename folder names

Remove the semicolon ; character in the physical termbase name and/or in the folder name within the folder path where the termbase is stored.
 

Related article(s):

• Error messages using termbases that contain an ampersand in termbase name or folder path
• Error messages using termbases that contain a hashtag (pound sign #) in folder path.

The termbase is stored in a folder where the folder name or physical termbase name contains a semicolon character.
SDL Trados Studio and/or SDL MultiTerm cannot resolve the folder path correctly because of the semicolon ; character.