Error importing a file

rahoekstra · December 11, 2012

I exported my existing references from Zotero and saved it as a text file before re-installing Windows on my PC. After the re-install I tried to import this file into Zotero again and get the following error after a few minutes:

"An error occurred while trying to import the selected file. Please ensure that the file is valid and try again."

I am running Zotero 3.0.11 in Firefox 17.0.1 on Windows XP. The same issue occurs when running Zotero in standalone mode.

I submitted an error report with ID 149584221.

I looked at the report and also tried turning on debug logging but nothing I could see would indicate the line number in the file that appears to be malformed, nor any other information which would help me figure out which entry is causing the error.

I can provide you with the file that is causing this problem if necessary.

Thanks!

adamsmith · December 11, 2012

while this shouldn't happen (Dan or Simon would have to take a look at the report ID) this is not the recommended way of backing up/transferring a library anyway. See here:
http://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#backing_up_your_zotero_library

Simon · December 11, 2012

There's no error in that report ID. You'd have to regenerate it after re-triggering the error.

rahoekstra · December 12, 2012

OK. I tried again, this time the report ID is 1574051229. I see similar output to last time when I did this:

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[JavaScript Error: "not well-formed" {file: "moz-nullprincipal:{198e9d11-6065-46bf-8f0a-61534100bfdb}" line: 1 column: 2 source: "%0 Journal Article"}]

[JavaScript Error: "not well-formed" {file: "moz-nullprincipal:{6c105172-ce49-469c-b7b1-9778552a432a}" line: 1 column: 2 source: "%0 Journal Article"}]

[JavaScript Error: "not well-formed" {file: "moz-nullprincipal:{1392fdac-d1f5-4bad-9320-bf154cebd221}" line: 1 column: 2 source: "%0 Journal Article"}]

[JavaScript Error: "not well-formed" {file: "moz-nullprincipal:{1392fdac-d1f5-4bad-9320-bf154cebd221}" line: 1 column: 2 source: "%0 Journal Article"}]

---------------------

Let me know if you need any more info or the file that is causing this.

Thanks for taking a look!

adamsmith · December 12, 2012

which format are you using? Did you export to Refer/Bibix? You'll lose a significant amount of your data - is there no way you can just restore from a back-up?

rahoekstra · December 12, 2012

I think I used the default export format which appears to be Refer/Bibix. If I open the file in notepad it is a text file with various sections delimited by a % sign and some characters. I don't have a backup of my FF profile where Zotero appears to store its data. In that folder there are a few zotero.sqlite.bak files. I'm not sure what created those. The file dates on them are within the last couple of days, i.e. after I did the restore.