Memory usage

pnunolima

Sometimes the Zotero Standalone on my computer uses almost 2,5GB of memory (normal usage is 150MB). It will not respond, and I have to restart it. It happens randomly, therefore I cannot reproduce the steps.

The about:memory report shows the following error:
WARNING: the following values are negative or unreasonably large.
explicit/storage/sqlite/(4 tiny)/other
This indicates a defect in one or more memory reporters. The invalid values are highlighted.

I tried creating a new profile, but the error remains.
I am using Linux Mint 64bit. In my Linux Mint 32bit the error does not show.

Do you have any idea? Thanks.

dstillman

When Zotero is next using that much memory, can you copy the contents of about:memory and email it to support@zotero.org, with a link to this thread?

The about:memory report shows the following error:
WARNING: the following values are negative or unreasonably large.
explicit/storage/sqlite/(4 tiny)/other

That error doesn't indicate a problem.

pnunolima

Thanks, Dan.
The problem is that when it happens, Zotero will not respond. I have to restart it.
Is there other possibilities to get the contents of about:memory?

dstillman

On the server I see several a full sync attempt—meaning Zotero is trying to pull all the data in all of your libraries—which would probably do it.

Is this computer fully in sync?

pnunolima

I have it to sync automatically, normally without problems.

dstillman

Right, but is it syncing normally now? One of your computers, at least, did a full sync 3.5 hours ago. Is that when this occurred?

pnunolima

Yes, Dan. It occurred more or less 3.5 hours ago. I stopped the auto sync for a while, but now it's OK.
However, that attempt could be when I changed the path of the Zotero folder, and by mistake I entered a blank folder, no?
Or are the attempts more frequent?

adamsmith

However, that attempt could be when I changed the path of the Zotero folder, and by mistake I entered a blank folder, no?

yes, that'd do it.

pnunolima

Thanks, Dan.
It happen again this morning. The memory usage was around 2GB. I had to restart it because Zotero did not respond.
Is there other possibilities to get the contents of about:memory?

dstillman

No—that's just the in-memory state, so when Zotero closes it's gone.

I don't see another large sync for you this morning, so that may not be the cause, but have you tried disabling auto-sync in the Sync pane of the Zotero preferences?

dstillman

You can, however, run Zotero with real-time debug output. You should clear that periodically while you're using Zotero, and if the problem happens again, save the log to a text file, zip it, and send it to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread.

(You may also be able to tell what's going on from inspecting it.)

dstillman

Thanks for the debug output.

I think I know what's going on here, at least for some excessive local activity you're getting during some file syncs, which I'm guessing is related to the memory issues. (I suspect "Copy Selected Item Citations to Clipboard" wasn't really related and you just happened to be doing that when auto-sync kicked in, but correct me if that seems wrong.) I won't be able to get to this for a couple weeks, but I should be able to work up a fix for at least that part of what you're seeing. Post again if you haven't heard back from me in a couple weeks.

If you can live without WebDAV file syncing for a little bit, I'd guess that disabling that would help.

pnunolima

Thanks, Dan

dstillman

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. Looking at this again, I don't think what I saw in your debug output was actually the issue. Not sure if you have Zotero for Firefox installed, but I'd be curious if this still happens if you try to sync with that in the latest version of Firefox (version 22). Zotero for Firefox will share your existing data directory by default, so it's easy to test. You just need to close Zotero Standalone.

pnunolima

Thanks for the reply. I am working on other things, and for the moment I do not use Zotero as frequently as before. I will take your advice.

pnunolima

I followed your suggestion,and open Zotero in Firefox, but I had the problem again. Is there something I can do to help identifying the problem?

dstillman

Are you still seeing the huge memory usage, or just a long freeze at sync time that eventually goes away?

pnunolima

It is the huge memory usage issue. The increasing of memory usage is slower when using Zotero in Firefox, but it freezes as in the standalone. It shut it down when it reached about 1.7Gb.

dstillman

OK, so this won't fix the problem, but it should give us more info to go on:

1) Install the latest 4.0 Branch dev XPI.

2) Generate real-time debug output for a sync attempt that demonstrates the issue, as before, but this time also set extensions.zotero.debug.time to true in about:config.

3) Save and zip that output and email it to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread.

Thanks, and sorry for the hassle.

pnunolima

I installed the latest 4.0 Branch dev XPI and followed your instructions.

Then I had to set the sync preferences, because there were blank. I usually use the standalone version, so I am not sure if I already had set the sync preferences in Zotero for Firefox. Is it possible that installing the latest XPI would had deleted the previous preferences? If not, then probably the syncing was not configured, and the memory usage issue when I used the Firefox version is not related with syncing.

Another strange thing happened. After installing the last version, the counter in the blue progress bar tooltip shows a huge amount of file to be synced. Actually, it seems that they are nor transfered. Is it normal, after installing the latest version?

I will keep trying to get a debug output for the memory issue.

dstillman

Preferences don't transfer between Standalone and Firefox, so if you never set your sync preferences in Firefox, that wouldn't have synced. If you can provide debug output with the latest dev XPI (or even in Standalone with Zotero 4.0.9, now available, though that will provide a bit less info), I should be able to tell conclusively whether this is from syncing.

After installing the last version, the counter in the blue progress bar tooltip shows a huge amount of file to be synced. Actually, it seems that they are nor transfered. Is it normal, after installing the latest version?

I'm not sure why that would've happened, but it's true that nothing would actually be transferred unnecessarily, even if it checked to see if existing files changed.