What to do when a file or document does not export

Context: You have finished translating a project in memoQ and are trying to export it. For some reason, an error message indicates that the export has failed. Such errors can have three different sources.

Conversion error:

These can be caused by upgrading a project from one memoQ version to another, which is not very common, nonetheless, we recommend finishing any of your existing projects under the earlier version rather than upgrade them to the new one. You can run both versions on the same computer in parallel. That way, you can start newer projects in the latest memoQ version and finish your older projects in an older memoQ version. It is not advised to open an older project in the latest memoQ version, work on it, and then open the project again in the older memoQ version. 

Genuine software defect:

Although this is quite rare, failure to export can be caused by the memoQ software. These bugs are tracked and we make sure to fix them as soon as possible.
A good way to prevent this from happening is to make sure your software is constantly updated to the latest build.

Missing tags or tag errors:

The most common case are missing tags or a filter configuration from a previous memoQ version.

Fix: 

To fix export-related errors, please follow these steps:

• Check errors. First, check if the bottom status bar shows any errors (this is the very bottom of the screen, and starts with P:, D:, then segment statuses like Pr:, Conf:, etc.). If there are errors, you need to fix them. You can jump through all errors easily: select the Edit ribbon tab > Go to Next, or press Ctrl+Shift+G, and then select Errors. This takes you to the first erroneous segment. You will see that the number of formatting tags ({1}, {2}, etc.) is different in the source and the target segment. Insert the remaining tags to the right positions by pressing F8 or Edit ribbon tab > Tag Commands > Insert Next Inline Tag. Do not forget to press Ctrl+Enter again after every segment. You can jump to the next erroneous segment by pressing Ctrl+G. If all errors are resolved, and the status bar shows no more errors, you can attempt to export the file again.

• Check warnings. The second most frequent reason why a document would not export is inline tags. These are the formatting tags that contain some information, and can be inserted using F9. It may be that you inserted all these tags, but in the wrong order, or some tags were inserted twice. To check where the problems can be, go to the Review ribbon tab > Run QA, and make sure that you have the Proceed to resolve warnings after QA checkbox enabled. memoQ will open up a list of warnings. There is a header for the list of warnings, showing Document, Code, Row, Description and Ignore. Click on the header of the Code column to sort the warnings according to Code. Many warnings cannot prevent export (for example, memoQ would never refuse to export because of missing terminology or bad number formats), but those that relate to tags can (e.g. when you join segments and you forget to insert the indicated Tag for joining). You need to look at the codes starting with 02, such as The translated XML is not well-formed against the source, or Tag …. is missing from the target, or Too many …. tags, etc. If you don't know XML syntax, the safest option is to make sure that all these tags are inserted in the target in the same order as in the source. If there are too many tags, you can start by removing all tags with Ctrl+F8, and insert all the tags sequence by sequence pressing F9. Once you are ready with this, press Ctrl+Enter, and then close this tab and run the QA again, to see if any warning remains. Once the QA warnings are resolved, it is very likely that the file will export back into the original format.

• If the file still does not export, it may have been imported in an earlier version of memoQ, and may not be exported in the new version. Try creating a new project and importing the source file into memoQ. Then copy the source to target for each segment by pressing Ctrl+Shift+A, Ctrl+Shift+S, and try exporting the file. If the file exports, the next step is to pre-translate the file from the previous version. In order to do so, we recommend opening the file you translated, creating a new translation memory and making it primary, and then pressing Ctrl+Shift+A, Ctrl+Enter. This will add all segments into the newly created translation memory, and you can make sure that no older translation gets into the pre-translated document. Then remove the document, go to the Preparation ribbon tab > Pre-translate, and pre-translate the document using the contents of the translation memory. You may need to resolve certain empty segments, sometimes there can be some tagging issues. The quality assurance module will help as described in step 2. Once you are done with this, the document is very likely to export. Please note that the more you use joining and especially splitting, the longer it takes to recreate the document. If you know which version was used to import the document, you may go back to that version and try exporting from there instead of performing the steps described here.

• Upgrade to the latest build or version. As we at memoQ fix software-related defects frequently, make sure that you are using the latest build. To check the build number, go to the My memoQ page, and compare it to the build number on the website. You can always safely install the latest build on top of your existing build. Version changes may have more significant implications.

• If the file still fails to export, send it over to memoQ's support, indicating the deadline of the delivery. We will help you out. For the export we need the original file and the memoQ bilingual which you can export using Export bilingual, and then selecting memoQ XLIFF. Also indicate the build number you are using.