Cannot export library

cospelka
Hi all,

I am trying to export my zotero library to bibtex. When I select all items in the library, right-click and then select "Export selected items", all works well.

However, when I click on the gear-wheel and choose "Export library", it asks me for a filename, and then I get an error:

"an error occurred while trying to export the selected file".

The report ID is D1934939449

Any clues? Thanks,

Christian
  • adamsmith
    We've seen this before - note that there is no difference between the two different things you do in terms of the outcome, so it shouldn't matter for you, though of course we'd like to not have this fail.
    It's not a general problem, btw. - works for me on a substantial library
    Dan - what's the error?
  • cospelka
    Yeah, I know. But I'd still like to see that button work... It confuses people if it doesn't. I've tried it on two group libraries and on my personal library. Same result.
  • dstillman
    [JavaScript Error: "this._itemsLeft.shift is not a function" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/translation/translate_item.js" line: 913}]
  • adamsmith
    @cospelka - could you check if you can export the library in any other format (no need to try more than two or three others).
  • cospelka
    Tried RIS and Zotero RDF. Same deal. Thanks for looking into this,

    Christian
  • aurimas
    @adamsmith, I can replicate this. I'll look into it some time today or tomorrow.
  • aurimas
    Ugh, sorry about that, but today I can't replicate it any more. Wish I could remember what I was doing differently. :-/

    Dan, I assume Zotero is at 4.0.8 in that Debug log.

    cospelka, is this Zotero Standalone or Zotero for Firefox? Can you try disabling all of your other extensions and see if it helps?
  • dstillman
    It's Zotero for Firefox 4.0.8.
  • cospelka
    Correct. Zotero for firefox. All other add-ons and plugins disabled, still the same. Best,

    Christian
  • cospelka
    I tried again, this time under debian. Same result. Can I do anything to help debug this? Best,

    Christian
  • aurimas
    Can you replicate this in a clean Firefox profile? Create a new profile, install Zotero extension, import some items and try to export them.

    If the export works correctly, then try to export all of your items in RDF format from your old profile (including notes and attachments) and import them into the new profile. Try to export them from the new profile.

    If that still doesn't cause an error, then there's something unusual about your old firefox profile. I'm not sure what it could be, since you say that all extensions and plugins are disabled.
  • cospelka
    edited July 5, 2013
    Hm. Pulling the whole library from group storage seems to have fixed this. Thanks for your input,

    Christian
  • Michael Schmidberger
    Dear Cospelka,

    I have exactly the same problem.

    I tried quite many different export formats, but always got the same error: "an error occurred while trying to export the selected file"

    It doesn't even help to select all items instead of trying to export the whole library.

    What do you mean by "pulling the wholi library from group storage?"

    I'd really need to make backups of my library as I am writing my PhD thesis right now. Any workarounds or ideas what could cause the error?

    I store my library locally on my harddisk.

    Thanks a lot!
  • dstillman
    Michael: First, note that export is not backup. If you just want to have a backup of your library, don't use export. See Backing Up Your Zotero Library.

    But we can separately help debug this, since export should obviously work. Have you tried exporting smaller sets of items? Try to export half of your library at a time. If one half fails, export half of that, and keep trying half of the failing half until you narrow this down to the smallest set of items (ideally one or two) that trigger this problem.

    If you can find one or two items that cause this, restart Zotero/Firefox and provide a Debug ID for trying to export just those.
  • Michael Schmidberger
    Dear Dan,

    thanks for your very quick reply.

    I'll backup my zotero folder as you suggested.

    However I'd still like to see that export working. Apparently there are many files that cause the export problem in my database (I really had to narrow down to a very small number of references in order to not get the error, i.e. in every bigger batch that I selected before there was at least one file causing trouble. This is really bad).

    A narrowed it down to the following single reference as an example (but this is no the only reference causing this trouble at all!):

    "Adjustment of supercontinua via the optical feedback phase - experimental verifications"

    The Debug ID for this error is:

    D491942275

    Thanks again for your help!

    Michael
  • dstillman
    Thanks. This is fixed in the latest 4.0 Branch dev XPI and will be fixed in 4.0.10. The error occurs if you try to export an item with a child linked file attachment that points to an HTML file.
  • Michael Schmidberger
    Thanks again!

    I will wait for 4.0.10 as I don't know how to use development branches!

    Michael
  • dstillman
    4.0.10 is now out with this fix.
  • Michael Schmidberger
    Dear Dan,

    thanks for the fix.

    I can confirm that RIS export now works for my library (after updating to 4.0.10).

    Yours,

    Michael
  • alaw005
    I am using Zotero 4.0.11 stand alone. I was exporting fine and then suddenly have same error as above.

    The Debug ID is D415045743.
  • dstillman
    [JavaScript Error: "this._itemsLeft.shift is not a function" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/translation/translate_item.js" line: 914}]
    alaw005: Do you still get this if you disable ZotFile? There's a ZotFile error in there as well.
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