Trouble Emptying Trash / Overloaded WorldCat References

Hello all,

I've recently run into two problem that I believe are related:

First, I noticed recently that when I import references from Worldcat, the imported citations include a huge number --ranging from the hundred to the thousands-- of notes. The bulk of the notes are empty; the rest include a single letter, beginning with "a" and running down to "z." I assumed this was just a minor bug, and so I've been deleting these extra file on a case-by-case basis whenever I added a new reference.

Here's the second issue (and the major problem). I recently deleted several of these note-loaded citations and, unfortunately, I didn't think ahead and delete all of the extraneous notes before I sent them to my trash folder. As a result, I now have 8-10 citations in my trash folder, and most of them have thousands of extra citations. Every time I attempt to "empty" my trash (and I've tried in my Firefox browser, on standalone, and online at zotero.org) Zotero freezes up. I also attempted to restore the files, but I don't seem to be able to do this either.

As a result of these problems, my Zotero is running extremely slowly, particularly when I try to move or add new items.

I'm open to any and all suggestions!
  • Dan may have suggestions on the trash (how long have you let run when trying this?) but I'm more interested in the WorldCat part:
    Which WorldCat version? Which browser? If this is open World Cat, could you provide a link to an item with this problem?
    For FirstSearch, I guess title and author, unless you happen to have an OCLC number.
  • If you have tens of thousands of items in the trash, you may need to leave it emptying for quite a while. Unless it actually crashes Standalone from running out of memory, it's likely to finish eventually.

    You can also delete items from the trash by selecting them in batches and pressing Delete/Backspace.
  • edited February 25, 2013
    @adamsmith looks like it's firstsearch. https://github.com/zotero/translators/blob/master/OCLC WorldCat FirstSearch.js#L141 should not be a string, but an array of note objects. I don't have access to a computer atm

    Edit: also L154
  • thanks Aurimas - I just pushed a fix, so sorry for messing this up!
    I tested this more thoroughly, but please double-check that I didn't do anything stupid.

    For others:
    The translator fix is now up. Your version of Zotero will automatically update within 24hs, or you can update manually using the "Update Now" button in the "General" tab of the Zotero preferences.

    Any problems let us know.
  • @adamsmith aurimas Yes, it's WorldCat OCLC FirstSearch (not open), and I've been using Zotero through Firefox.

    @Dan Stillman Good to know, and I'll probably just hit "empty" and leave everything running tonight when I go to bed. I was worried that, once you had a certain number of files, the emptying process would just time out.

    Thanks all for your help -- let me know if you want me to test anything out later.
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