Sync error with "Note too long for item", error report 102512604

jikorsbakken
This is a description for error report 102512604:

I get a consistent sync error when trying to sync, with the following message when I click the red exclamation mark icon:
"Note '<h2 id="activity-name" class="rich_media_title" style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; pa...' too long for item '3961917/HIJYB9QK'"

I suspect this is because of a problem with a part of a web page I copied and pasted into a note attached to an item, but none of the notes were unusually big when seen on screen. Is this a bug?

If not a bug, the problem could be due to a long html tag which isn't visible on screen, but is there some way I can find which note it is without deleting notes and retrying the sync until it succeeds? And if I do find out which note it is, how can I make sure that I correct the problem without losing the content of the note?
  • adamsmith
    If you typ HIJYB9QK into the quick search bar in all fields and tags mode, that should pop-up the item with the note.

    And yes, it's either a long HTML tag or an embedded image thats making the note too long to sync.
  • jikorsbakken
    Thanks, I was able to find the offending note. There were a few embedded images. After I deleted that, the note synced successfully.

    Btw, is there an overview somewhere of limits like these (note size, filename length limits, URL length limits, etc.)?
  • bwiernik
    The only real place you might run into this limit is emebedded images in notes (which is fixed in Zotero 5.0). Other limits you would only ever hit for things that are clearly import errors (e.g., entering the full text of an abstract as a tag or an author name).
  • dstillman
    (We restored the ability to paste images into notes in 5.0 until we have proper support for that, so it's still possible to hit that sync error.)
  • bwiernik
    Oh, I thought syncing somehow worked around images since pasting was restored. Good to know.
  • wybert
    I upgrade to 5.0.21, but also have this problem. It's very important to sync the note with image or find a solution to add notes in other ways
  • bwiernik
    You cannot sync notes with images. That is a technical limitation with the way Zotero note syncing works. I recommend you add those images as attachment files, rather than embedded notes.
  • dentino
    edited December 13, 2017
    I am getting a similar sync error: Note 'ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgments...' too long for item '1564433/WRF6MUA3'. After this, Zotero is unresponsive and I get the following message:

    'A script on this page may be busy, or it may have stopped responding. You can stop the script now, or you can continue to see if the script will complete.

    Script: resource://zotero/tinymce/tinymce.js:3614'

    This seems to relate to the indexing of a very large work. Any assistance on how to handle this would be appreciated.

    The only thing that has worked for me is to remove offending attachment. Is there some way that I can include this attachment and avoid this issue?
  • bwiernik
    Search for “WRF6MUA3” in your library using “All fields and tags”. It will show you the note that is too long. It is likely that you have an embedded image in the note. Such images are not supported currently for syncing. You should attach the image as an Attachment to the item instead.
  • adamsmith
    (and if it's not an embedded image, somehow it may contain the full text of the work as suggested by the ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgments part)
  • dentino
    The "note" seems to be created automatically by Zotero, I assume by indexing or pulling out the links for the table of contents. I tried deleting this note but it gets recreated. I am not aware of any image in there, but the note is very long because the book is so long with many chapters and sections.
  • adamsmith
    Could you check what's in the Library Catalog field for the item in question, please?
    (and yes, you'll have to shorten the note; if you need to keep all the text, split it between multiple notes)
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