Can't start Content Server, can't access Sharing over the net in Preferences

[dewd]

When I try to start the Calibre Content Server, I get the following error:

JSONDecodeError:Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

Full message:

Spoiler:

calibre, version 5.17.0
ERROR: Unhandled exception: <b>JSONDecodeError</b>:Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

calibre 5.17 embedded-python: True is64bit: True
macOS-10.15.5-x86_64-i386-64bit Darwin ('64bit', '')
('Darwin', '19.5.0', 'Darwin Kernel Version 19.5.0: Tue May 26 20:41:44 PDT 2020; root:xnu-6153.121.2~2/RELEASE_X86_64')
Python 3.8.5
OSX: ('10.15.5', ('', '', ''), 'x86_64')
Interface language: None
Successfully initialized third party plugins: DeDRM (7, 1, 0) && Action Chains (1, 7, 2) && Annotations (1, 15, 0) && Count Pages (1, 11, 0) && Duplicates++ (2, 0, 2) && Favourites Menu (1, 0, 5) && Find Duplicates (1, 8, 5) && Goodreads (1, 5, 1) && Goodreads More Tags (1, 2, 1) && Goodreads Sync (1, 15, 1) && Import List (1, 5, 4) && Job Spy (1, 0, 190) && KyBook3 Sync (1, 0, 12) && Quality Check (1, 11, 2) && Reading List (1, 7, 2) && Search The Internet (1, 8, 1) && User Category (1, 5, 5) && View Manager (1, 6, 0)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "calibre/gui2/actions/device.py", line 219, in toggle_content_server
File "calibre/gui2/ui.py", line 495, in start_content_server
File "calibre/srv/embedded.py", line 74, in __init__
File "calibre/srv/embedded.py", line 43, in search_the_net_urls
File "calibre/srv/embedded.py", line 35, in read_json
File "json/__init__.py", line 357, in loads
File "json/decoder.py", line 337, in decode
File "json/decoder.py", line 355, in raw_decode
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

In Preferences, clicking on Sharing over the net produces the same error message but with different details:

Spoiler:

calibre, version 5.17.0
ERROR: Unhandled exception: <b>JSONDecodeError</b>:Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

calibre 5.17 embedded-python: True is64bit: True
macOS-10.15.5-x86_64-i386-64bit Darwin ('64bit', '')
('Darwin', '19.5.0', 'Darwin Kernel Version 19.5.0: Tue May 26 20:41:44 PDT 2020; root:xnu-6153.121.2~2/RELEASE_X86_64')
Python 3.8.5
OSX: ('10.15.5', ('', '', ''), 'x86_64')
Interface language: None
Successfully initialized third party plugins: DeDRM (7, 1, 0) && Action Chains (1, 7, 2) && Annotations (1, 15, 0) && Count Pages (1, 11, 0) && Duplicates++ (2, 0, 2) && Favourites Menu (1, 0, 5) && Find Duplicates (1, 8, 5) && Goodreads (1, 5, 1) && Goodreads More Tags (1, 2, 1) && Goodreads Sync (1, 15, 1) && Import List (1, 5, 4) && Job Spy (1, 0, 190) && KyBook3 Sync (1, 0, 12) && Quality Check (1, 11, 2) && Reading List (1, 7, 2) && Search The Internet (1, 8, 1) && User Category (1, 5, 5) && View Manager (1, 6, 0)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "calibre/gui2/preferences/main.py", line 312, in show_plugin
File "calibre/gui2/preferences/server.py", line 1258, in genesis
File "calibre/gui2/preferences/server.py", line 1129, in genesis
File "calibre/srv/embedded.py", line 43, in search_the_net_urls
File "calibre/srv/embedded.py", line 35, in read_json
File "json/__init__.py", line 357, in loads
File "json/decoder.py", line 337, in decode
File "json/decoder.py", line 355, in raw_decode
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

I understand precisely none of this...

[kovidgoyal]

That indicates the settings file server-search-the-net.json is corrupted in your config folder. delete it and you will be fine. And I will have calibre ignore this error in the future.

[dewd]

Perfect, that sorted it out. Thank you (again)!