I have had a Paperpile subscription for a few years, with no issues. However with the last update, the Chrome extension stopped working and I cannot access my library anymore in the Paperpile website, all I get is the"Setting up your library" screen, it just goes on and on and seems to try to lead (a blue circle appears) but then goes back to this same screen. I have tried letting it run in a separate tab for several hours multiple times and it never completes.
I have tried uninstalling the extension and reinstalling it.
Welcome to our forum, @Hem_Nalini_Morzaria! Thanks for reaching out here as well as via email. Please right-click anywhere on the screen and click Paperpile > Send debug logs, then click Reset database (circled below) on the tab that opens.
If the issue persists after doing that and reloading the Paperpile tab, please send us the debug logs so we can investigate further — on the same page pictured above, click the blue Send logs button.
I am not sure what you mean with “right click anywhere on the screen”. Do you mean on the Paperpile webpage? When I go to the paperpile website I get routed to my library, all I see is “Setting up your library”. Right-clicking over that only shows me to the standard Chrome menu. I can choose to Inspect from that menu, would the logs saved from that be useful?
Thanks for the details, @Hem_Nalini_Morzaria, and apologies for the lack of clarity. I did mean the standard Chrome menu, which should display a Paperpile option:
I did not get that option in the right-click menu in Chrome.
I uninstalled and reinstalled the extension a few times, in one of those tries the library loaded (although it immediately said there was an error and it had to reload), but after that, the Paperpile extension did appear in the right-click menu and I was able to send the logs.
However, when I clicked on Reset database, Chrome crashed, and when I opened it again, the Paperpile option in the right-click menu was gone again and the library would not load anymore.
I switched to another computer, in case the problem was the Chrome installation. I loaded the same Chrome profile linked to my Paperpile account, and I get the same result, the library will not load and the Paperpile extension will not appear in the right-click menu.
@Hem_Nalini_Morzaria we’ve received a couple other reports of similar behavior, in those cases the source of the issue has been an unusually large amount of collections (labels or folders — thousands). So far we know this can happen when importing from other software. Could this be the case for you as well?
If so, there is a new bulk label and folder management tool which can be used to clean up. Some workarounds to access your library could be:
uninstall the extension and try without reinstalling it (the library now runs without it)
try from any other browser, also without the extension
Let us know. We don’t yet have an estimate of when a fix for this issue will be implemented, but the team is working on it at the moment.
Hi, I did originally import my library from Zotero, but that was several years ago when I first migrated to Paperpile.
I tried accessing my library from Edge, and I get the same result, it just hangs on “Setting up your library”
I can’t sign into Paperpile from Firefox, I get an alert “You can only sign into Paperpile from Chrome”
I tried K-Meleon but clicking on “Sign in” doesn’t do anything and the browser crashes
@Hem_Nalini_Morzaria I have replied on our email thread to coordinate a troubleshooting video call, as we have done with @ajn. We are actively looking into solutions for this matter.
I have now been unable to access my library for weeks as a result.
I have tried every single workaround imaginable.
This means the issue is server side and the team absolutely needs to escalate this issue and at the very least provide a solution for me to export and use another service.
Right now, I can neither access my data, nor export to go somewhere else.
I’m sure other users will appreciate that having their library both disappear AND be non-exportable is nearly the worst case scenario. But your team doesn’t appear to be taking the matter as seriously as what it really is
We’re really sorry for the ongoing trouble you’ve been experiencing, @ajn. I can assure you that your library has not disappeared, and it is still exportable. I’ve provided solutions in my reply to you in our in-app messenger to help resolve it. Please let me know if you have any questions or need further assistance.
Hi Suzanne, thanks for the reply. I received the RIS file but it’s missing all of my tags and, naturally, any reference to/copy of the underlying PDF file.
Some thoughts I’ve shared with your team is about clarity on limits, paying for additional compute time/accounts, etc… Endnote, for example, sets a limit of some 2000 tags for a single account’s library. It also sets a hard limit of something like 100,000 references per single account library. That kind of clarity would be of tremendous assistance in this matter.
I have had a terrible time with the new Paperpile for the same reason: it can’t handle a large number of folders or tags. It won’t load at all on my Chromebook, and it runs badly on a (borrowed) Microsoft Surface. I have found, however, that the Android version works ok, including on my Chromebook - so I’m using that for the moment. I recommend it as a workaround for those experiencing difficulties., But it is very clumsy and also has two critical limitations: 1) it won’t show or save notes; and 2) it won’t export. It’s certainly not a permanent solution.
I’ve gotten some support from the team, but nothing has worked and they’ve gone pretty quiet. It seems to me this is a critical problem - a group of their heaviest users have been essentially deprived of their research flow; some seem locked out entirely. We need to know more about what is being done about it.
I have thought about deleting old folders, but I’m not sure they could be reconstructed if needed. There’s a JSON export format which should keep them, but people seem to have had trouble reimporting it. I really need help trying to figure a way through this mess.
We’re sorry that the transition to the new Paperpile has been difficult for you, @Charles_Heckscher. Unfortunately, the JSON format can’t be imported into your library, but I’ve emailed you instructions for recreating your folder structure. Let me know if you have questions.
A couple of thoughts spring to mind:
1.@Charles_Hecksher is an extremely well respected Professor/ thought leader in his field. I’d encourage your team to make time to listen to him. I’m certain he would have valuable feedback to give.
2. Professor Hecksher makes a logical point in his post, a potential avenue of approach to a solution is for us heavy users to lessen the load our accounts put on your system. Deleting and then reconstructing our data incrementally may be a sensible way to find a workable middle-ground.
However, that would require a detailed export of our existing library. An XLSX, CSV, JSON or XML that included all of the metadata for each paper (folders, tags, associated PDFs, notes, etc) would be the required output.
Could one of your team please contact me to that end.
