Error 587657, Invalid response from server

Syncing doesn't work anymore for me after updating to 1.5beta.

I reset my server data and tried syncing the whole thing again, but it won't work.

Error 587657:


[JavaScript Error: "An internal server error occurred. Please try again later." {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/sync.js" line: 1411}]

[JavaScript Error: "[Exception... "'Invalid response from server' when calling method: [nsIDOMEventListener::handleEvent]" nsresult: "0x8057001e (NS_ERROR_XPC_JS_THREW_STRING)" location: "<unknown>" data: no]"]
  • I'm now getting the same error, which is almost certainly tied to a reasonably long-standing problem having to do with too-long tags and the inability to delete them after removing them from the tag list and all entries.
    New error: 671565787
    Older post on inability to sync - Sync Stopping # 2065224568

    I'm using the latest zotero 1.5b1 - an upgrade since my prior problems.
  • [I know I don't have any tags longer than 25 characters, though.]
  • I'm getting the same problem.
    1.5a1.r4172

    [JavaScript Error: "An internal server error occurred. Please try again later." {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/sync.js" line: 1411}]

    [JavaScript Error: "[Exception... "'Invalid response from server' when calling method: [nsIDOMEventListener::handleEvent]" nsresult: "0x8057001e (NS_ERROR_XPC_JS_THREW_STRING)" location: "<unknown>" data: no]"]

    report id 1885581214

    Regards, Jon
  • Mark and Jon: This is likely just due to server load from people with large databases doing initial syncs, causing other connections to time out (hence the "internal server error" part). We'll be making some changes in the next few days to keep the heavier processing from disrupting normal syncing. I'd be surprised if you weren't able to get a sync through at all, however, unless your copies of Zotero are also trying to upload lots of new data (which they shouldn't be if you've been syncing regularly). You can check debug output (or just check for upload traffic in a network monitor) to see.
  • AEngineer: I checked your error—same for you. Not related to tags.
  • Having the same problem after resetting my data and trying to replace server data with my client data (was moving Webdav servers do opted to do everything clean).

    Hope that the problem gets resolved soon,

    Jim
  • edited February 25, 2009
    Dan, it must be the size of the sync operation. I reset server data, so my copy of Zotero is trying to upload lots of new data.

    I trust this is a temporary scaling issue. It would be off-putting to new users with hefty libraries to find that they can't sync after all. It might help to be able to sync in chunks (as with storage sync).
  • I reset server data, so my copy of Zotero is trying to upload lots of new data.
    Ah, right—missed that.
    It would be off-putting to new users with hefty libraries to find that they can't sync after all. It might help to be able to sync in chunks (as with storage sync).
    That's a possibility we've considered and are still considering, but it would complicate the sync logic. In the immediate future, we'll be switching to doing syncs over a certain size asynchronously, storing the uploaded XML on the servers and processing it as resources allow, which should be within a few minutes. The client will get an immediate response after the upload and then check in periodically until it receives the results of the sync, which it will then display as usual.
  • edited February 25, 2009
    I'm suddenly experiencing similar problems. Everything worked fine after upgrading to the beta version, but after adding one item I got the invalid response from server error. The new item has no tags at all and I synced sucessfully before, so I guess it's not a matter of uploading large amounts of data.
    Here's an error ID: 831257118
    and another one after restarting Firefox: 1628073057

    update: strangely, everything works fine again after waiting 15 minutes. So never mind...
  • I think it would be good to put a warning somewhere that it no longer is a piece of cake to reset server data and start afresh. I'm still getting the error. Can you recommend a time of day when the server isn't overloaded? I'm in another timezone (Amsterdam) so that should work, shouldn't it?
  • edited February 25, 2009
    I'm having the same problems. See my thread "Can't Get My Zotero Library onto a Second Machine".

    Sync won't work (on machine 2 or 3). Reset won't work. Import (of entire database) won't work. I'm guessing it's due to the size of my database: 12,000+ entries. But I was told that Zotero could handle tens of thousands of entries.
  • I think it would be good to put a warning somewhere that it no longer is a piece of cake to reset server data and start afresh
    I'm not sure what you mean by this. You can now restore from either direction automatically in the preferences. (If you really want the menu options back, you can create a boolean extensions.zotero.sync.debugMenu pref in about:config and set it to true.)
    Can you recommend a time of day when the server isn't overloaded?
    For the most part the servers aren't really overloaded at all (I suggested that as a possibility because I thought you were doing an incremental sync), but there's a timeout of a few minutes on sync attempts that you might be hitting. Has the size of your library increased markedly since when you first synced to the server in the Sync Preview? How many items do you have?
  • I'm not sure that the problem is server overload--I've been having the same problem on my linux machine for more than a month, and despite numerous attempts have never been able to sync since the update released around January 22. My library is not huge--just over 1000 references. I've submitted several error reports without a response: 1674746198 1310591556 1382455215 It appears (from other comments) that other linux users have had the same problem for some time. It is only with the latest update that the problem has surfaced in Windows and Mac.
  • edited February 26, 2009
    Dan, what I mean is that since I upgraded to 1.5b and did a 'reset server data' from my clients, I cannot sync anymore. It just stops after some time with 'Invalid response from server'. Most recent try: 1974408103.

    From your first reply I gathered that it probably wasn't due to a problem on my side (tags or something). That wouldn't make sense anyway since nothing much has changed since the last time I synced successfully (again, except for the server data reset).

    So I'm just looking for the reason I still can't sync — if it's not server overload either, what could it be? And are users that are new to syncing with libraries of the same size (mine is only 1722 items) running into the same problem?
  • Same going on here.

    I have also tried to reset my server data and tried syncing the whole thing again, but it won't work.

    Error code: 1552688654

    I am trying to "sell" this program to a large group of Endnote users, but unfortunately these problems keep cropping up making it difficult. Hopefully it will be resolved soon.
  • Mark, same problem here. I do have 12,000+ entries though. Firefox freezes for 15-20 minutes every time it tries to perform the first sync to the server. It's been trying dozens of times over the last couple of days, but fails every time.

    jlanders, I, similarly, have been waiting to promote Zotero with a blog post, but want it to be working well for me first. :)
  • @philgons Thanks for your message. We're actively working to solve this problem. Please see Dan's response.
  • I've been also getting the 'invalid response from server error'. I don't know if this was purely accidental, but once I cleared Firefox's error log everything seems to be working fine.
  • ...and I've done a successful sync — or at least I see my library again online (have yet to sync the other client)
  • I made some optimizations overnight that should allow some larger syncs in both directions to complete (though probably not yet for 12,000+ items, philgons). Many more to come.
  • Thanks for the update, Dan. Good to hear.
  • Works like a charm! Thanks.
  • Hi -we're getting an invalid response from server message this morning. My error report is 621640084. I performed a manual upgrade to version 2.0 stable last week, but I think I was able to sync once last week before that time. We have 1186 items in our group library.
  • Er, I think i was able to sync successfully once after the upgrade, rather.
  • http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/11320/invalid-response-from-server/#Item_2
This discussion has been closed.