"Out of memory" error (ID 110460599) importing large ris

Mark.E
I've been trying to import a ris file with about 20,000 records into a brand new library, and I keep getting "out of memory" errors. After the first couple times, I closed all other programmes and monitored the task manager during import, and RAM usage never went above 60% (I have 16 GB). It still stalled and gave this error after about 12,000 records.

Any advice? Thanks in advance.
  • adamsmith
    Zotero on Windows can't use all memory, so that's likely what you're seeing. With RIS, though, this is really no problem. RIS files are just a collection of individual enties, all starting with TY - and ending with ER - so you can open the file with any text editor, split it into 3 or 4 files (making sure to split between ER - and TY - ) and import those individually.
  • Mark.E
    I see, thanks. For reasons idiosyncratic to my workflow, it's useful for me to know exactly how many records are in each ris file before I import them, which is difficult when you split the files manually. But I'll make it work. Thanks for the help!
  • adamsmith
    You can just use a good text editor (Notepad++, Atom, or Visual Studio, e.g.) to count the occurences of TY - in a given file to get at the number of entries.
  • Mark.E
    Great tip, thanks!
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