BE freezes when retrieving PDFs

[mgymnop]

Hello,

I have an issue where Bookends becomes unresponsive when retrieving PDFs for a large numbers of references either at once (>500) or in batches (approx 200-300). I have to force quit program to exit the search information screen. Is there any fix for this?

[Jon]

Impossible to know what's going on when that happens. If you can isolate which reference is causing the problem and I can reproduce it it should be possible to track it down. Since your screen snap shows you're on the first reference, just try that alone. Then contact tech support (support@sonnysoftware.com).

Jon
Sonny Software

[mgymnop]

Impossible to know what's going on when that happens. If you can isolate which reference is causing the problem and I can reproduce it it should be possible to track it down. Since your screen snap shows you're on the first reference, just try that alone. Then contact tech support (support@sonnysoftware.com).

Jon
Sonny Software

Hi Jon. Thanks for your reply. I tried that reference alone and it works without issues. Could it be that there is a limitation on how many references can be checked for pdfs in a batch? Or that there is something like a data overflow or timeout after a certain time? It's very rare that BE can finish a request of PDF retrievals when I have more than 50 references.
Is there another way to stop the task without force quitting? I am afraid that I will damage the database.

Best,
Marco

[Jon]

In theory there is no limit, which is why I can't think why this should happen. And it's tough to debug from a distance, especially since I don't have your 100's of PDFs.

You should be able to force quit without damaging the library. Of course you have backups (Bookends creates them, and I hope you do, too). You can even go to the Finder right now and make a duplicate of your library. Then force quit if you have to.

Jon
Sonny Software

[mgymnop]

So I tried to figure out what the issue is and I must say it is more difficult than expected. It is independent of the references. A references that stalls the program can next time go through without issues. The program can freeze after 1 reference or after 300. I tried different wifi connections and it didn't matter either. It seems totally random. It happens when I use PubMed my main database. I haven't tried yet other ones because PubMed is the most used one in my field of research.

[Jon]

This sort of thing is really difficult to track down. I'm wondering if PubMed is blocking you, thinking you're a robot. We have code that aims to prevent this by slowing down search requests. But it's possible that they use other metrics to prevent mass harvesting. I can take a look at the code again, but as you said figuring this out is difficult.

Jon
Sonny Software