Import Freezing

danjransom
I'm using Zotero Standalone. Most of the import files seem to work fine, but there are a few that always cause the application to freeze at the very beginning of the import (after the collection is created, but before any citations show up).

I have submitted the output log of the import. It is ID D1122024585

Can someone help me figure out what's different with these import files that would cause the import to freeze?
  • aurimas
    @Dan Stillman, is this the database access issue?
  • dstillman
    Yes.

    To fix it (in 4.0, before async DB), we may just need to close the transaction before letting the progress bar spin. The downside is that interrupted imports will result in incomplete imports in Zotero. (But the upside is that failed imports won't leave behind orphaned files in the storage directory, which I'm guessing they do now, so, short of cleaning those up automatically, leaving the imported items behind may actually be better.)

    danjransom: But just in case there's an easy fix here, could you try one thing for us? Open about:config from the Advanced pane of the Zotero preferences, find extensions.zotero.debug.stackTrace, and double-click it to toggle it to true. Then restart Zotero and generate another Debug ID for an import that fails. That might give us a bit more info on what exactly is causing this. When you're done you can set that preference back to false.
  • aurimas
    The downside is that interrupted imports will result in incomplete imports in Zotero.
    I would almost prefer that in general. Would help users figure out what item causes imports to break too.
  • dstillman
    Yeah, I'd also say it's less of an issue now that we have "Delete Collection and Items" in the collection context menu. (The sync delete log is also a concern, but that should become less of an issue with API syncing.)
  • RintzeRintze
    The user should be clearly alerted about incomplete imports though (e.g. with a modal window), especially since it's not uncommon for people to (against our advice) use export/import for back up and restoring libraries.
  • danjransom
    New debug output has been sent to the Zotero server with stackTrace enabled.

    The Debug ID is D734219753.
  • danjransom
    Is there any new direction that you can provide or an ETA on a possible fix?
  • danjransom
    suggestions?
  • aurimas
    edited November 4, 2013
    Not sure what Dan has to say (he probably missed your post above), but it's likely that you will have to wait for a new Zotero version to fix this bug.

    You can try a couple things, which may or may not help. Probably try all of these together:
    • Close the tag panel (bottom left of Zotero window) by dragging it completely down

    • Disable automatic sync (don't exactly recall if that has helped with this issue before) Edit: only disable this during import. You can restore it afterwards.

    • Split the file up into smaller files and try importing again. (what file type is this? RIS? RDF?)

    • If this is a RIS file, try enabling (setting to "true") the RIS.import.ignoreUnknown hidden preference

  • danjransom
    It is an RIS file. Tried all of the above without any success.

    Is there an ETA on a new version? Am I looking at weeks or months?
  • dstillman
    Tomorrow
  • aurimas
    Dan, is your suggestion above going to make it into the release tomorrow? I.e. have you/are you going to patch this yourself? I can give it a shot as well.
  • dstillman
    Simon was going to try to get to it tonight — not sure if he's started.
  • dstillman
    (Yup, Simon is working on it.)
  • dstillman
    This should now be fixed in the latest 4.0 Branch dev XPI, and it'll be fixed in 4.0.13 on Tuesday.
  • danjransom
    Looks like my imports are working as of 10.0.13. Thanks!
  • dstillman
    Great, thanks.

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