Troubleshooting exports

These are some common reasons for why a data or survey export might fail.

Problem	Description	Workaround
File size	If you export a large amount of data or a very large survey, the system may run out of memory, and the export will fail.	Break the file into several smaller files, and then export the smaller files.
Multi-byte characters in SPSS	If you export data to SPSS and the data uses multi-byte characters such as Chinese, Korean, or Japanese characters, the export fails with the following error: Export Failed or Was Stopped Unable to create SPSS Field: <field name>. In order to export to SPSS, you must change the corresponding question name in the survey to something else. Otherwise, use the CSV file format. Note: This issue occurs if you try to export to SPSS version 14 or lower. These SPSS versions do not support multi-byte characters.	Do one of the following: Export to SPSS version 20. Export to Unicode CSV format and then import the Unicode CSV file to SPSS.
Recode for a single choice question does not display expected counts in reports	By default, a recode is set to Single Choice. A Single Choice recode allocates participants to each row based on the order in which they qualify. A participant can only be assigned to one row, even if they qualify for multiple rows. For example, you create a Single Choice recode with the following options and conditions: Option 1: IF Gender IS Female AND Country IS United States Option 2: IF Gender Is Female When a participant is female and from the United States, she technically qualifies for both Options 1 and 2. However, since the Single Choice recode qualifies her for one option, she is assigned to Option 1, as this is the first row in the recode. A survey report based on this recode will only display a value for Option 1 for this participant. She is not counted under Option 2. If you are filtering based on this recode and the criteria is set to Option 2 the participant would qualify, though the data exported would only contain an answer for Option 1.	Do the following: Create a Single Choice recode that does not contain overlapping options. Create a Multi Choice recode so that participants can be counted in more than one option. For more information, see Create a recode.

Problem

Description

Workaround

File size

If you export a large amount of data or a very large survey, the system may run out of memory, and the export will fail.

Break the file into several smaller files, and then export the smaller files.

Multi-byte characters in SPSS

If you export data to SPSS and the data uses multi-byte characters such as Chinese, Korean, or Japanese characters, the export fails with the following error:

Export Failed or Was Stopped

Unable to create SPSS Field: <field name>. In order to export to SPSS, you must change the corresponding question name in the survey to something else. Otherwise, use the CSV file format.

Note: This issue occurs if you try to export to SPSS version 14 or lower. These SPSS versions do not support multi-byte characters.

Do one of the following:

Export to SPSS version 20.
Export to Unicode CSV format and then import the Unicode CSV file to SPSS.

Recode for a single choice question does not display expected counts in reports

By default, a recode is set to Single Choice. A Single Choice recode allocates participants to each row based on the order in which they qualify. A participant can only be assigned to one row, even if they qualify for multiple rows.

For example, you create a Single Choice recode with the following options and conditions:

Option 1: IF Gender IS Female AND Country IS United States
Option 2: IF Gender Is Female

When a participant is female and from the United States, she technically qualifies for both Options 1 and 2. However, since the Single Choice recode qualifies her for one option, she is assigned to Option 1, as this is the first row in the recode. A survey report based on this recode will only display a value for Option 1 for this participant. She is not counted under Option 2.

If you are filtering based on this recode and the criteria is set to Option 2 the participant would qualify, though the data exported would only contain an answer for Option 1.

Do the following:

Create a Single Choice recode that does not contain overlapping options.
Create a Multi Choice recode so that participants can be counted in more than one option.

For more information, see Create a recode.