Freezing with RIS imports

TEG3

Hi there,

I am working on a shared group Zotero library, and we have been attempting to import RIS files with reference info from various online databases (not including the citation files themselves). However, our team has found lately that when we attempt to import more than 3 citations in a given RIS file, the screen darkens, and the progress bar on "Importing items" remains at 1/10th done for a long time (e.g. upwards of 20 minutes) without ever completing the import. Dragging the files into Zotero does not seem to work either: the RIS files themselves appear when dragged into the library, but they do not "expand" to reveal their constituent citations.

I believe most of us are using Zotero standalone, and we have the most recent version of Zotero. If you have any suggestions, please let me know!

Kind regards,
Anelyse

adamsmith

could you post the content of an RIS for which that happens somewhere? Upload anywhere you want, or paste to a public gist as gist.github.com (no registration required) and provide a link here.

aurimas

As a temporary measure, you can try enabling the RIS.import.ignoreUnknown hidden preference and see if it helps. See http://www.zotero.org/support/preferences/hidden_preferences#translator_preferences for details. You will need to add the preference (it will not be present). It is a boolean

TEG3

Hi Adam,

Thank you for your prompt reply! Here is a link to a sample RIS file that I have tried to import:
http://www.filetolink.com/d6a33d6b3e

Aurimas, thank you for your suggestion. Despite enabling that preference, unfortunately it does not seem to make a difference.

Best,
Anelyse

adamsmith

That file imports fine for me, though it takes a while. The reason is the huge number of N1 fields in the RIS which convert to Zotero notes: While you're only importing 160 items, they collectively have about 2000 notes, which is why they take longer. I have no idea why this wouldn't go through for you, though. I tried this on a slow Windows machine, which is about the worst set-up possible.
Aurimas, any ideas?

aurimas

Just to be clear (as I should have been the first time) you added a Boolean preference extensions.zotero.translators.RIS.import.ignoreUnknown and set it to true. It wouldn't be surprising that it didn't work, I just want us to be on the same page.

Could you also confirm that your Zotero is up to date (4.0.8) and so are your translators (Preferences -> General -> Update Now)

TEG3 or adamsmith (since you already downloaded the file) could you upload it somewhere where I don't have to register or link my Google account to access it?

adamsmith

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/5953012

TEG3

Hi Aurimas,

Yes, I am using Zotero 4.0.8, and it is fully up to date.

Thanks for helping us troubleshoot!

Anelyse