Evernote export not working

bartoli.alberto
I have tried to export my Zotero library to Evernote. The Evernote format is not accepted by Evernote (Windows 4.6.1), an incomplete_doc error is found immediately. I have tried to edit the enex file but did not succeed.

Has anybody found the same problem ? Any hope to see it fixed ?

(I would like to copy to Evernote every Zotero item; this way, every search in Evernote---which is "the" tool for all my not-research-related work---would return also Zotero results; I am going to set up an ifttt workflow for copying future Zotero items to Evernote, but I need to first copy all muy existing items).
«1
  • adamsmith
    I don't use evernote - could you see if exporting/importing individual items works?
  • bartoli.alberto
    I have exported one item, it works; two items, it works either.

    I could place the exported files in a public dropbox folder, if that might be useful...

    thanks.
  • adamsmith
    if you don't mind that'd be helpful, yes. It's harder to troubleshoot export than import since I don't know how I'd get any debug from Evernote, but I can take a look if there's something obvious.
  • bartoli.alberto
    update: in evernote, the imported items appear with title, tag and url; other essential info (abstract, journal etc) is not visibile.
  • bartoli.alberto
    at this link:

    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1j5ooj6smx80ici/nH2Hvprop_

    you should find:

    forum1.enex, containing 1 item, imported
    forum2.enex, containing 2 items, imported
    forum all.enex, containing my full library, not imported; the jpg file shows the evernote error

    forum2.bib contains the two items successfully imported.

    once you have downloaded these files please let me know so that I can remove them. should you need any further detail please do not hesitate to contact me directly if you prefer (bartoli.alberto@gmail.com).

    thanks.
  • adamsmith
    got them, you can take them off. I'll post any updates I have here.
  • adamsmith
    I've emailed Alberto about this, but for anyone else with this problem:
    Notes created by Zotfile's automatic extraction feature contained illegal characters that resulted in illegal xml export into the Evernote format.
    As more people use the Zotfile extraction feature, this will need to get fixed.
  • Peter100
    I would guess this has been fixed by now but I 'm currently unable to export my Zotero notes to Evernote (using enex).

    Actually I'm trying to get pdf annotations created with Zotfile to DevonThink but since I can not get this to work I though I would try going via Evernote.
  • adamsmith
    works for me - at what point do you get an error?
  • Peter100
    During Evernote import it stops at 555 notes of about 3000 and Evernote says there is an internal database issue. I have never really used Evernote and it's a fresh install.
  • adamsmith
    I don't think that's the same issue (e.g. the error is different) - if you can try to narrow this down to a smaller export we can take a look.
  • Peter100
    I just exported half the library (ca 1700) and the same error occurred after about 90 notes.
  • Peter100
    edited April 8, 2014
    the same for 300 exported refs. ... Evernote crashed after about 90 imported notes.
  • adamsmith
    I'd also try getting in touch with Evernote support. The original error was that Zotero exported invalid xml (I believe because the ZotFile notes contained illegal characters as I write above). That error would pop up immediately when you try to import, not after some time.
    It's certainly possible that there is a problem with Zotero's Evernote export - the format isn't documented and we're just modelling export after what Evernote does - but "internal database issue" sounds more like an issue on their side.

    We'd still take a look at a minimal failing import sample, though.
  • Peter100
    edited April 8, 2014
    ok,i have contacted evernote

    how should i get the sample to you?

    also I assume the following addons do not conflict:

    auto export 1.1.5
    better bib(la)tex 0.3.0
    report customizer 0.1.5
    word for mac integration 3.5.7...
    zotfile 3.1
  • adamsmith
    not with export, no. Ideally post the sample somewhere - gist.github.com pastebin.com or dropbox all are fine.
  • Peter100
    here is the link to the upload

    https://github.com/joetoe/zotero/blob/master/evernoteexport

    (hope it works.. never used gist.github before)
  • adamsmith
    that works, yes, but I can't do the legwork on this - we really need a minimal sample to track down issues (note that you can delete entries in the text file which may be faster - just make sure you always go from <note> to </note>

    A file with hundreds of notes will take me way too long to look at. The general xml is valid and small subsets of this work - including those that include extracted annotations, so this is particular to some notes.
  • Peter100
    what do you have in mind as a minimal sample - 5-10 refs exports?

    I can replace the same file in a jiffy.
  • adamsmith
    anything <50 is fine, the smaller the better, though make sure it actually fails on import to Evernote.
  • Peter100
    Well, I couldn't reproduce the error with anything less than about 500 refs so I guess I'll have to wait for Evernote.
  • Peter100
    edited April 8, 2014
    actually, now it happened with 104 refs (the "As" of my library). It stopped at 88 or 89 (I believe "Åsberg"). I'll update the link just in case someone finds the time to investigate.
  • adamsmith
    OK, so I think I have narrowed down the two problems.
    Evernote titles can't be too long.
    " <title>A Theory of Shopping/ Shopping, Place, and Identity A Theory of Shopping. Daniel Miller. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998. ix + 180 pp., notes, bibliography, index. Shopping, Place, and Identity. Daniel Miller. Peter Jackson, Nigel Thrift, Beverly Holbrook, and Michael Rowlands. New York: Routledge, 1998. xi + 214 pp., notes, bibliography, index</title>"
    crashes the import

    and Evernote tags cannot contain commas (semicolons are OK).

    It's hard to say who should fix this - on the one hand it's Evernote's format, but on the other hand those are pretty dumb limitations, especially when Evernote doesn't provide any decent feedback on import
  • Peter100
    edited April 8, 2014
    ok - well thanks for looking at it. I'll share with Evernote when they follow up.

    In the meantime my original challenge of getting the notes of Zotero still remains. Of the 80 or so items I was able to export to Evernote the links generated with Zotfile break - so I'm back to square one in terms of figuring out a way to make the Zotfile notes searchable / indexable outside Zotero. About the best option seems to generate on long report and somehow explode it into separate text files, possibly with a script, unless there was a way to have zotero export a report for each ref item.
  • adamsmith
    there is this: https://github.com/kmlawson/ZotDevon
    which currently doesn't import notes, I believe, but could be extended to do so.
    I feel there has to be a better solution than creating hundreds of atomic html files for this - Zotero exports notes in a gazillion formats, is there really no way DevonThink can read/import any of them?
  • Peter100
    edited April 8, 2014
    I'm in over my head when it comes to editing scripts. I did try setting up ZotDevon but couldn't get it to work because it involved editing with apple script (not developed since 2012 I believe). I have Devonthink indexing Zotero's pdf storage folder which works great. However DT doesn't see the notes. There is an import script for Skim that works great but I was interested in using Zotfile's notes / Zotero's reports which feel cleaner and also save the step of running the pdfs through Skim to extract the notes and get them into DevonThink. Perhaps I'm missing something. I've been trying to work this out off and on for a few years so I'm probably blind to the obvious by now.
  • diallobakary4
    Hi Alberto

    I'm referring to your previous message "Notes created by Zotfile's automatic extraction feature contained illegal characters that resulted in illegal xml export into the Evernote format.
    As more people use the Zotfile extraction feature, this will need to get fixed."

    I'm using Zotfile and I'm having an incomplete_doc error when trying to export from Zotero to Evernote.
    Is there a solution to the problem?
  • adamsmith
    that error is from Evernote? As per above, I'm pretty sure the ZotFile issue has been fixed (note this is four years old) so you're seeing something else.
  • diallobakary4
    Yes the error comes when I'm uploading my zotero export (.enex format) to Evernote.
  • adamsmith
    OK, could you try to narrow this down? If you export import just an individual item, does that work? Try with a couple.
Sign In or Register to comment.