Trouble importing RIS-generated .txt file

amwdew
I've been slowly converting an old Procite database to Zotero by exporting records to RIS, making a few corrections in field mapping, and importing into Zotero. I just did another batch of items perhaps about 6-8 weeks ago.

However, just in the last couple of days, I have been unable to import more than 1-2 items at a time. I exported a modest group of items from Procite that I wanted my students to be able to use in a project, but every time I try to import them, Zotero just hangs. The progress bar goes up a little, or as much as about 75% and then just stalls. I left one attempt running all day today, and it still never completed.

I am not sure how to begin troubleshooting this, as all I can do is shut Zotero down, so I don't get an error report.

I'm doing this on a Mac running Snow Leopard, with Zotero standalone.

If it would help to submit the txt file I'm trying to import, I can do that. I'm at a loss!
  • adamsmith
    I'm 99% sure we would be able to import the files, so I doubt we need them.

    A couple of things to try:
    1. Make sure your Zotero Trash is empty
    2. Close the tag selector on the left
    3. Instead of using the "import" function, select & copy the contents of the file (using select all --> copy) and then use import from clipboard.

    If none of these help, you can try looking at real time debug output:
    http://www.zotero.org/support/debug_output#real-time_debug_output

    My expectation would be that you'll see
    Cannot start a DB transaction from a different wait level
    at some point there.
  • amwdew
    Great -- that worked (I did all three steps, including emptying all trash folders associated with the eleven group libraries that I have in addition to my personal library).

    Is it your view that this needs to be my permanent process, or is something temporarily amiss that has caused having to use this workaround?

    Thank you!
  • aurimas
    As far as we're aware (and assuming the hang you were experiencing was due to what adamsmith said), this only affects importing from files (perhaps also clipboard). So unless you start running into hang-ups again while importing files, you don't need to worry about this.
  • amwdew
    Thank you.
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