Using Omeka Classic 3.1.1, PHP 8.2
When adding a new collection or item I receive the following error when I save: “There was an error on the form. Please try again.” All data entered into the form are lost.
Help? Thanks!
Note: I’ve upgraded to 3.2. Problem persists.
There are two things that you might do here: Turn on error logging (Retrieving Error Messages - Omeka Classic User Manual) and let us know what plugins you have active on your site.
1 Like
THANK YOU!
There are…many…plugins.
Active Plugins:
Amazon S3 Storage Adapter
Version 1.1.0 by EHRI
Archive Document
Version 2.4.1 by Daniel Berthereau
Archive Repertory
Version 2.15.8 by Daniel Berthereau
Atom Output
Version 1.0.1 by Center for History & New Media
Bulk Metadata Editor
Version 2.8.1 by UC Santa Cruz University Library, Daniel Berthereau, Daniele Binaghi
COinS
Version 2.1.1 by Omeka Team
Collection Tree
Version 2.1 by Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
CSV Export Format
Version 1.1.2 by University of Toronto Libraries
CSV Import
Version 2.0.6 by Omeka Team
CSV Import+
Version 2.3.3 by Daniel Berthereau (improvement of CSV Import of Center for History & New Media)
Default Sort
Version 1.2 by The Digital Ark
(Not working)
Docs Viewer
Version 2.2 by Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Dropbox
Version 0.7.2 by Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Dublin Core Extended
Version 2.3 by Omeka Team
Exhibit Builder
Version 3.8 by Omeka Team
HTML5 Media
Version 2.8.1 by John Flatness
Item Duplicator
Version 1.4 by Daniele Binaghi
Item Order
Version 2.1 by Omeka Team
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Version 1.1 by Center for History & New Media
MediaRSS plugin for the Cooliris Image Viewer
Version 1.0 by Center for History & New Media
OAI-PMH Repository
Version 2.1.1 by John Flatness
Reference
Version 2.7 by Daniel Berthereau
Search By Metadata
Version 1.1 by Roy Rosenzweig Center for History & New Media
Simple Pages
Version 3.2.1 by Omeka Team
Inactive Plugins that I’ve removed yet persist on the Plugin page:
Ead
This is not a valid plugin.
EadImporter
This is not a valid plugin.
Escher
This is not a valid plugin.
HtmlPurifier
This is not a valid plugin.
ItemRelations
This is not a valid plugin.
OaipmhHarvester
This is not a valid plugin.
SortBrowseResults
This is not a valid plugin.
I will work on error logging shortly.
I believe I’ve set up logging, but nothing regarding the “Error when attempting to save a new collection or item” error seems to be appearing
The only thing being logged is variations on this for about 30-40 different files:
2026-02-23T12:10:45-08:00 DEBUG (7): Omeka_Storage_Adapter_AmazonS3: generating URI to expire in 10 minutes:
With it set back to WARN, nothing is logging.
Checked this AM and it is indeed logging errors…although seemingly unrelated to the problem I’m having?
2026-02-23T13:55:36-08:00 ERR (3): Omeka_Record_Exception: Invalid search type given! in /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/models/Table/Item.php:143
Stack trace:
#0 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/models/Table/Item.php(28): Table_Item->_advancedSearch(Object(Omeka_Db_Select), Array)
#1 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/models/Table/Item.php(432): Table_Item->filterBySearch(Object(Omeka_Db_Select), Array)
#2 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/libraries/Omeka/Db/Table.php(323): Table_Item->applySearchFilters(Object(Omeka_Db_Select), Array)
#3 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/libraries/Omeka/Db/Table.php(277): Omeka_Db_Table->getSelectForFindBy(Array)
#4 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/controllers/helpers/Db.php(59): Omeka_Db_Table->findBy(Array, 20, 1)
#5 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/libraries/Omeka/Controller/AbstractActionController.php(144): Omeka_Controller_Action_Helper_Db->__call(‘findBy’, Array)
#6 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/controllers/ItemsController.php(180): Omeka_Controller_AbstractActionController->browseAction()
#7 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/libraries/Zend/Controller/Action.php(516): ItemsController->browseAction()
#8 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/libraries/Zend/Controller/Dispatcher/Standard.php(308): Zend_Controller_Action->dispatch(‘browseAction’)
#9 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/libraries/Zend/Controller/Front.php(954): Zend_Controller_Dispatcher_Standard->dispatch(Object(Zend_Controller_Request_Http), Object(Zend_Controller_Response_Http))
#10 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/libraries/Zend/Application/Bootstrap/Bootstrap.php(106): Zend_Controller_Front->dispatch()
#11 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/libraries/Zend/Application.php(384): Zend_Application_Bootstrap_Bootstrap->run()
#12 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/libraries/Omeka/Application.php(73): Zend_Application->run()
#13 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/index.php(23): Omeka_Application->run()
#14 {main}
2026-02-24T04:02:28-08:00 ERR (3): Zend_Controller_Action_Exception: Context “csv’” does not exist in /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/libraries/Zend/Controller/Action/Helper/ContextSwitch.php:532
Stack trace:
#0 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/libraries/Zend/Controller/Action/Helper/ContextSwitch.php(1239): Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_ContextSwitch->hasContext(‘csv’‘, true)
#1 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/libraries/Zend/Controller/Action/Helper/ContextSwitch.php(257): Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_ContextSwitch->hasActionContext(‘browse’, ‘csv’’)
#2 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/libraries/Omeka/Controller/AbstractActionController.php(491): Zend_Controller_Action_Helper_ContextSwitch->initContext()
#3 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/libraries/Omeka/Controller/AbstractActionController.php(88): Omeka_Controller_AbstractActionController->_setActionContexts()
#4 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/libraries/Zend/Controller/Dispatcher/Standard.php(281): Omeka_Controller_AbstractActionController->__construct(Object(Zend_Controller_Request_Http), Object(Zend_Controller_Response_Http), Array)
#5 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/libraries/Zend/Controller/Front.php(954): Zend_Controller_Dispatcher_Standard->dispatch(Object(Zend_Controller_Request_Http), Object(Zend_Controller_Response_Http))
#6 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/libraries/Zend/Application/Bootstrap/Bootstrap.php(106): Zend_Controller_Front->dispatch()
#7 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/libraries/Zend/Application.php(384): Zend_Application_Bootstrap_Bootstrap->run()
#8 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/application/libraries/Omeka/Application.php(73): Zend_Application->run()
#9 /home/vfc/vtfolklifearchive.org/collections/index.php(23): Omeka_Application->run()
#10 {main}
Apologies for the repeated responses.
Poking around, I just noted the “There was an error on the form. Please try again.” Error appears on the Dublin Core, Files and Tags tabs on the Add and Item page.
In addition, this error appears on the Files tab as well:
“The Dropbox files directory must be both readable and writable.”
Note–I was only trying to add Item metadata, no files.
Thank you again!
One thing to check on: when you’re on the item form and scroll down all the way, do you see the footer of the site (which says “Powered by Omeka,” has your version number and the System Information link)?
If that’s not there, it would indicate a problem happening that could cause the error you’re seeing.
" Powered by Omeka Version 3.2 " is indeed there. 
I think the next best move is to disable all those plugins and see if that makes a difference.
No difference. Problem persists
So you disabled all your active plugins and it still happens?
This happens whenever you try to create an item or collection, even a “blank” one, just saving the form? Or do you have to enter specific data (or a specific amount of data) to hit the problem?
Yup, all plug ins have been deactivated.
I first discovered the problem when I was entering a collection–so, in that case, there were data entered across numerous fields. Then I tested it by trying to save both collections and items with just a single word in the Title field (e.g. “test”) and got the same error. At your suggestion I just tried it again with a totally blank form and got the same result.
I’m thinking I’m going to try to do a new, clean install where the only old file I transfer over is db.ini and see if the problem persists. This particular system has been in use since, I believe, pre Omeka 1.0, so maybe I just need to start over…albeit with the same database!
The only other thing that immediately comes to mind is that PHP has limits on how many fields you can submit on a form… if you have a really large number of elements and element sets that could cause this.
You’ve checked your Omeka log but if you check for PHP logs also (depending on your server, they might be in your Apache log or somewhere else by themselves), that might shed some light on the problem.
I can reach out to the tech people to see if this might be PHP related.
This has never been a problem in the past though, so I don’t think it’s the form.
AM Update: In an attempt to see if it would be useful, I installed the Admin Tools plugin. When ticked “Show Buttons” in the Admin Tools Plugins tab and clicked “Save,” I received the “There was an error on the form. Please try again.” error.
AM Update 2: Just got out of a chat session with the hosting company’s support. Two things:
-
Support agent checked the php memory limits and said they are at 512m, which they said was fine. Then they increased the max execution time to see if that would help and asked me to try again and see. It didn’t help.
-
After my post php-adjustment attempt, the agent noted this appeared in the error log:
“Wed Feb 25 05:48:56 2026] [vtfolklifearchive.org] [warn] [client 65.183.133.255:0] [pid 1170094] fcgid_bucket.c(153): mod_fcgid: stderr: PHP Warning: POST Content-Length of 18171 bytes exceeds the limit of 512 bytes in Unknown on line 0”
At this point I’m wondering if I should just create a second, totally fresh installation with a brand new, empty database and see if the problem repeats itself there.
Well, dang. I have another Omeka Classic installation running on the same account/different domain (folksources.org) and that’s giving me the SAME error!