"Retrieve metadata for PDF" fails with "an unexpected error occurred"

patrick.brian.mooney · February 20, 2017

Reporting in case it's helpful. I understand completely that metadata retrieval for random Internet documents is a handy thing to have but will never be perfect.

Debug log D1582793861. Linux x64 (Crunchbang++, a Debian derivative, based on Debian 8.7). Zotero standalone 4.0.29.10. It's failing on this document: (which does contain embedded text): https://americanfuturesiup.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/sontag-the-imagination-of-disaster.pdf

Happy to supply more information if it's helpful. Thank you for a wonderful piece of software!

adamsmith · February 20, 2017

Works for me on Windows -- Retrieve Metadata works for you otherwise?

patrick.brian.mooney · February 20, 2017

Often, yes -- and, again, I realize it's a convenience and I can always add metadata manually. I only really reported it due to the "unexpected error" comment. (Generally, when it fails, it's with a message along the lines of "metadata could not be retrieved" rather than "unexpected error.")

dstillman · February 20, 2017

@adamsmith: Not sure what's happening here. Loads http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=info:mylN34e5i6UJ:scholar.google.com/&output=cite&scirp=0&hl=en, which includes a BibTeX URL, but then fails with "Could not find BibTeX URL".

adamsmith · February 21, 2017

I only really reported it due to the "unexpected error" comment. (Generally, when it fails, it's with a message along the lines of "metadata could not be retrieved" rather than "unexpected error.")

exactly the right thought, too. I don't currently hav e a good idea why that's happening, but it shouldn't. Have you tried this again on a different day?