NodeJS & Mongoskin, can't do simple update. Argument passed in must be 12 bytes or 24 hex string

Question

Using mongoskin.

I'm trying to do a simple update and I keep on getting the error:

Error: Argument passed in must be a single String of 12 bytes or a string of 24 hex characters in hex format

Different code that I have tried:

var mongo = require('mongoskin'),
    store = mongo.db(MONGO_DB_ADDESS + ':' + MONGO_DB_PORT + '/' + MONGO_DB_NAME + '?auto_reconnect=false');

session._id = 4eb5444d39e153e60b000001;

store.collection('sessions').updateById({_id : session._id}, {$set: status_obj}, {upsert : false, multi : false, safe : false}, function() { ... });

store.collection('sessions').updateById(session._id, {$set: status_obj} );      

Even tried:

store.collection('sessions').update( {'_id': session._id}, {$set: {"status":'unavailable'}} );    

Any help appreciated!

Thanks Fyi, I can do the update via mongo using the cli just fine:

db.sessions.update( {'_id': ObjectId('4eb5444d39e153e60b000001')}, {$set: {"status":'unavailable'}} );

Answer 1

store.collection('sessions').updateById(session._id.toString(), {$set: status_obj} ); 

Adding .toString() finally resolved this for me.

Answer 2

Did have a similar error with Mongoose, it turned out my id was wrong, but maybe this validation function can help your:

function validate_id(id) {
  return !(id !== null && (id.length != 12 && id.length != 24));
}

Answer 3

put this in the root of your javascript

ObjectID = require('mongoskin').ObjectID;

collection.updateById(new ObjectID(song._id), <json>, <callback>);

puts the _id you get in node into the format mongo needs