What causing this "Invalid length for a Base-64 char array"

I have very little to go on here. I can't reproduce this locally, but when users get the error I get an automatic email exception notification:

Invalid length for a Base-64 char array.

  at System.Convert.FromBase64String(String s)
  at System.Web.UI.ObjectStateFormatter.Deserialize(String inputString)
  at System.Web.UI.ObjectStateFormatter.System.Web.UI.IStateFormatter.Deserialize(String serializedState)
  at System.Web.UI.Util.DeserializeWithAssert(IStateFormatter formatter, String serializedState)
  at System.Web.UI.HiddenFieldPageStatePersister.Load()

I'm inclined to think there is a problem with data that is being assigned to viewstate. For example:

List<int> SelectedActionIDList = GetSelectedActionIDList();
ViewState["_SelectedActionIDList"] = SelectedActionIDList;

It's difficult to guess the source of the error without being able to reproduce the error locally.

If anyone has had any experience with this error, I would really like to know what you found out.

Solution

I've seen this error caused by the combination of good sized viewstate and over aggressive content-filtering devices/firewalls (especially when dealing with K-12 Educational institutions).

We worked around it by storing Viewstate in SQL Server. Before going that route, I would recommend trying to limit your use of viewstate by not storing anything large in it and turning it off for all controls which do not need it.

References for storing ViewState in SQL Server:
MSDN - Overview of PageStatePersister
ASP Alliance - Simple method to store viewstate in SQL Server
Code Project - ViewState Provider Model