System.ArgumentException: Exception of type 'System.ArgumentException' was thrown. Parameter name: encodedValue

I was configuring one of our clients farm which required FBA on different web applications (around 5) and he wanted each web application should have separate user store. That was too tricky since you just need to set up Application property of the membership provider and you are done.
After completion of these settings, all of my applications were having a common exception either in log out or login to the web application. Here was the exception.

System.ArgumentException: Exception of type 'System.ArgumentException' was thrown.  Parameter name: encodedValue    at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.Claims.SPClaimEncodingManager.DecodeClaimFromFormsSuffix(String encodedValue)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.Claims.SPClaimProviderManager.GetProviderUserKey(IClaimsIdentity claimsIdentity, String encodedIdentityClaimSuffix)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.Claims.SPClaimProviderManager.GetProviderUserKey(String encodedIdentityClaimSuffix)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPUtility.GetFullUserKeyFromLoginName(String loginName)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationRuntime.SPHeaderManager.AddIsapiHeaders(HttpContext context, String encodedUrl, NameValueCollection headers)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationRuntime.SPRequestModule.PreRequestExecuteAppHandler(Object oSender, EventArgs ea)     at System.Web.HttpApplication.SyncEventExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute()     at System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously)

After checking all my steps right through starting. After getting all the other exeptions cleared the above exception was the only exception that I was getting. That was resolved using "Exception of type 'System.ArgumentException' was thrown" got error when i have signout from webapplication in sharepoint 2010?.
I hope this will help to you if you are getting same error due to a silly custom property of a custom web part for registration!

Update - 5/19/2014

There are several solutions that I tried:

• Solution that is mentioned here: Exception of type 'System.ArgumentException' was thrown" got error when i have signout from webapplication in sharepoint 2010?
• In Central Administration, Application Management - select web application and in user policy, for the specific zone where you have problem (or default zone) try to remove and add all authenticated users and all fba users full read and make sure none of the AD users are showing in Domain\username format.

The same error also encountered again reported by client when he tries to enable intranet through internet explorer settings. Disabling detection of intranet from internet options solves that issue but you are forced to enter username password every first visit of the site even in intranet as well!

Update - 5/25/2014

This is a SharePoint bug also found some discussion here: https://sharepoint2013fba.codeplex.com/workitem/9 

Hope this helps

Not able to change page layout

Problem:​

Due to some problem in page, Page Layout button in ribbon is showing disabled.

Solution:

Use following as QUICK solution if you are creating a new page:

1. Delete newly created page
2. Go to site settings > Page Layouts and Templates
3. Locate "New page defualt settings" and select the page layout that you want to set as default page layout.
4. Save setting
5. Create new page

There can be many reasons of Page Laout showing disabled in ribbon. You can reference following links to go deeper and resolve it properly.

1. Try check out the page and then go to edit mode of the page.
2. Try different browsers to change page layout
3. ​Change page layout using powershell
4. Reference link 1​

Creating web application from existing content database

There are situations where you want to propagate one SharePoint web application to some other farm/machine.   I feel the fastest way is to take content database backup and restore it in your destination farm. I have done so in last couple of weeks and I have leaned how to quickly do that.
Here are quick notes from my experience:
Pre-requisites:
I was provided with content database backup and source code. That makes be able to restore site and generate wsps from source code.
Creating  content database from backup:
Go to your database server and do following:

• Create a blank database that will be used as content database 
• Restore a database using content database back up from source farm.

Creating a web application:

• Go to sharepoint central administration and create a new web application
• While creating a new web application, use existing content database in database section
• Sometimes if your database is too large, web application creation takes too long and times out. Don't worry at all. web application is still created successfully. It happened to me 4 times out of 5. 

Validating the web application:

• Go to sharepoint central administration, click on application management. In "Databases" section you will find "Manage content databases"
• Choose your application and it will show database status and number of site collections. If you are not sure how many site collections are there in backup, anything greater than 0 is good news.

Configure web application to work properly:
we are almost done now. Do following:

• Go to sharepoint central administration
• Click on "Application Management"
• In "Site Collections" section click on "Change site collection administrators"
• choose your web application set proper data in site admins.

Additional optional steps:
After performing all the above steps, it is still possible that you are not able to access your web application.

• Last thing to do is to install and deploy wsp by using stsadm or your favorite method. 

Conclusion:
It is always challenging to move applications from one farm to another. Specially when they are depending upon other service applications. In spent last two weeks to learn how to properly do that. I hope this will help you at some point during your sharepoint development.