Upgrading to org-mode 9.1.6 error: org-duration-to-minutes: Invalid duration format: "val"

Question

I upgraded my org-mode from version 9.0.10 to 9.1.6. Restarted emacs, then launch my usual org-agenda. I get an error message:

org-duration-to-minutes: Invalid duration format: "val"

The error comes from the new file: duration.el

Backtrace:

* org-duration-to-minutes("16:00")
  org-refresh-property(((effort . identity) (effort-minutes . org-duration-to-minutes)) "16:00" nil)
  org-refresh-properties("Effort" ((effort . identity) (effort-minutes . org-duration-to-minutes)))
  org-refresh-effort-properties()
  #[0 "\307\306!\203\f

How do I fix this?

Answer 1

Org-mode had became more strict with it's syntax. I found this line in one of my org files.

* Task A
   :PROPERTIES:
   :Effort:   val
   :END:

Another error that can generate is an invalid time format

* Task A
   :PROPERTIES:
   :Effort:   156:0
   :END:

This will cause an error message in the Message buffer

org-duration-to-minutes: Invalid duration format: "156:0"

I hope that more information will be displayed such as line number and the filename so it will be easy to debug for new users and save them time trying to find out what is going wrong.