diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 77619a4..2944ef9 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Package: sbtools
 Title: USGS ScienceBase Tools
 Maintainer: Luke Winslow <lwinslow@usgs.gov>
-Version: 0.13.3
+Version: 0.13.4
 Authors@R: c(person("Luke", "Winslow", role = c("aut","cre"),
     email = "lwinslow@usgs.gov"),
     person("Scott", "Chamberlain", role = c("aut"),
diff --git a/R/item_file_download.R b/R/item_file_download.R
index cf83561..a53adcf 100644
--- a/R/item_file_download.R
+++ b/R/item_file_download.R
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ item_file_download = function(id, ..., names, destinations, dest_dir, session=cu
 		destinations = file.path(dest_dir, names)
 
 	#or we have names and destinations
-	}else{
+	}else if(!missing(names) & !missing(destinations)){
 		if(length(names) != length(destinations)){
 			stop('Length of names and destinations must be identical')
 		}
@@ -60,6 +60,9 @@ item_file_download = function(id, ..., names, destinations, dest_dir, session=cu
 		if(!all(names %in% flist$fname)){
 			stop('Item does not contain all requested files')
 		}
+	#otherwise in some other error condition
+	}else{
+		stop('Must have either names & destinations, or dest_dir for all files')
 	}
 
 
diff --git a/R/item_update_identifier.R b/R/item_update_identifier.R
index 2fa2eaf..1dcc2a7 100644
--- a/R/item_update_identifier.R
+++ b/R/item_update_identifier.R
@@ -39,8 +39,8 @@ item_update_identifier = function(id, scheme, type, key, ..., session=current_se
 	}
 	
 	data = list(scheme=unbox(scheme), type=unbox(type), key=unbox(key))
-
-	data = merge_identifiers(original$identifiers, data)
+	
+	data = merge_identifiers(unbox_identifiers(original$identifiers), data)
 	
 	info = list(identifiers=data)
 	
@@ -69,3 +69,16 @@ merge_identifiers = function(original, updated){
 	original[[length(original)+1]] = updated
 	return(original)
 }
+
+unbox_identifiers = function(idents){
+	if(length(idents) < 1){
+		return(idents)
+	}
+	
+	for(i in 1:length(idents)){
+		idents[[i]]$type   = unbox(idents[[i]]$type)
+		idents[[i]]$scheme = unbox(idents[[i]]$scheme)
+		idents[[i]]$key    = unbox(idents[[i]]$key)
+	}
+	return(idents)
+}