"error occurred" when importing large library from Endnote

librarianlea

Hi,

I'm trying to help one of my faculty import a large library with pdfs from Endnote X7. In EndNote, we exported all of 3,555 of the references as an RIS file saved as .txt. In Zotero, we get the error "an error occurred while trying to import the selected file. Please ensure that the file is valid and try again."

And only 1,594 of the references are imported.

Any suggestions? Here is the error report. Thanks!

[JavaScript Error: "1460118771330 Toolkit.Telemetry ERROR TelemetryStorage::loadAbortedSessionPing - error removing ping: PingReadError JS Stack trace: PingReadError@TelemetryStorage.jsm:80:15 < TelemetryStorageImpl.loadPingFile<@TelemetryStorage.jsm:1440:13" {file: "resource://gre/modules/Log.jsm" line: 749}]
1460119191524 addons.update-checker WARN Update manifest for zoteroWinWordIntegration@zotero.org did not contain an updates property
1460119191539 addons.update-checker WARN Update manifest for zoteroOpenOfficeIntegration@zotero.org did not contain an updates property
[JavaScript Error: "syntax error" {file: "moz-nullprincipal:{1a5a1611-0aad-440d-97cd-0ad78005c1c1}" line: 1 column: 1 source: "TY - JOUR"}]
[JavaScript Error: "syntax error" {file: "moz-nullprincipal:{6a695627-08a5-4ca8-b12f-710d17b1bb37}" line: 1 column: 1 source: "TY - JOUR"}]
[JavaScript Error: "syntax error" {file: "moz-nullprincipal:{79400c8c-5551-4a8d-9d3e-d57f9c8a7085}" line: 1 column: 1 source: "TY - JOUR"}]
[JavaScript Error: "syntax error" {file: "moz-nullprincipal:{04d00424-d534-4cc3-9951-1962e29b45ca}" line: 1 column: 1 source: "TY - JOUR"}]
[JavaScript Error: "syntax error" {file: "moz-nullprincipal:{04d00424-d534-4cc3-9951-1962e29b45ca}" line: 1 column: 1 source: "TY - JOUR"}]
[JavaScript Error: "syntax error" {file: "moz-nullprincipal:{04d00424-d534-4cc3-9951-1962e29b45ca}" line: 1 column: 1 source: "TY - JOUR"}]
[JavaScript Error: "syntax error" {file: "moz-nullprincipal:{04d00424-d534-4cc3-9951-1962e29b45ca}" line: 1 column: 1 source: "TY - JOUR"}]
[JavaScript Error: "syntax error" {file: "moz-nullprincipal:{04d00424-d534-4cc3-9951-1962e29b45ca}" line: 1 column: 1 source: "TY - JOUR"}]
[JavaScript Error: "syntax error" {file: "moz-nullprincipal:{04d00424-d534-4cc3-9951-1962e29b45ca}" line: 1 column: 1 source: "TY - JOUR"}]
[JavaScript Error: "syntax error" {file: "moz-nullprincipal:{04d00424-d534-4cc3-9951-1962e29b45ca}" line: 1 column: 1 source: "TY - JOUR"}]
[JavaScript Error: "syntax error" {file: "moz-nullprincipal:{04d00424-d534-4cc3-9951-1962e29b45ca}" line: 1 column: 1 source: "TY - JOUR"}]
[JavaScript Error: "syntax error" {file: "moz-nullprincipal:{04d00424-d534-4cc3-9951-1962e29b45ca}" line: 1 column: 1 source: "TY - JOUR"}]
[JavaScript Error: "syntax error" {file: "moz-nullprincipal:{04d00424-d534-4cc3-9951-1962e29b45ca}" line: 1 column: 1 source: "TY - JOUR"}]

version => 4.0.29.5, platform => Win32, oscpu => Windows NT 6.1; WOW64, locale => en-US, appName => Zotero, appVersion => 4.0.29.5, extensions => Zotero LibreOffice Integration (3.5.11.SA.4.0.29.5, extension), Zotero Word for Windows Integration (3.5.4.SA.4.0.29.5, extension), Adobe Acrobat (10.1.4.38, plugin), Google Update (1.3.29.5, plugin), Microsoft Office 2010 (14.0.4730.1010, plugin), Microsoft Office 2010 (14.0.4761.1000, plugin), Silverlight Plug-In (5.1.41105.0, plugin), Shockwave Flash (21.0.0.197, plugin), Citrix Online Web Deployment Plugin 1.0.0.104 (1.0.0.104, plugin), Web Meeting Plugin (2.7.1691.3381, plugin)

librarianlea

btw, we were trying to import into Zotero Standalone, but I don't know which version (I can certainly get that info fairly quickly).

adamsmith

Nothing obvious in the error report, that's a very odd error. You can split RIS files into chunks -- open with a text editor and separate between any ER - and TY - tag.

It would help if you could narrow this down a bit. The most likely cause is something in a specific entry or set of entries that's tripping Zotero up.

Potentially it could also be due to the size of the file (though that's not what the error suggests, so not very optimistic on that front.

librarianlea

Thank you for looking at this!

I like the idea of splitting the RIS files into chunks. That could help isolate problematic entry or set of entries if some are tripping up this process.

Will try this!

adamsmith

If you do find a group or individual problematic entries, we'd be happy to take a look.

librarianlea

thanks!

librarianlea

Quick update, exporting the info in chunks worked!

We took the easier (to non-coders) approach of exporting small batches of EndNote records. My faculty member eventually found a set of records that caused the same error. He wasn't interested in more troubleshooting and was glad that he got most of his EndNote library into Zotero with pdfs.

Thanks again!