Hi all,
hope I can find some help or hints on this problem:

I created a survey that has finally more than 980 data columns in the answer table. Unfortunately LS 3.18.0 (as well as some previous versions, but not versions 2.x) does not export more than 980 columns. All rows are truncated from column 981 upwards. I had a look at the corresponding DB answer table - all columns are there and properly filled.
Interestingly the data viewer of LS shows all columns!

I placed a bug report already, but meanwhile, does anyone have a) a workaround or b) some hints what is causing the problem, so that may be I can debug it myself?

Thanks in advance!

Only a workaround to get to the data for analysis:
During the export process you can define which data you want in the data file. Split it into two batches, first export the first 50% of questions, then the other 50% of columns. Of course you'll need to have the ID in both files to later join them.

Hello Holch,
thanks for your quick reply! This is a good workaround an a relieve for the next days. Anyhow, I hope the more easy way will work again

Definitely just a workaround and not a final solution. But sometimes the final solution can take a while. However, are you sure that LS exported more than this before? I think there was an even lower column limit for the export to excel a couple of years ago. Now I don't know about the CSV export.

Which format are you exporting to?

I couldn't find your bug report. Could you post a link here?

Thanks to @orvil : reported here : bugs.limesurvey.org/view.php?id=15327

Hello Holch,
yes, absolutely sure, because I am doing that every week, for the last (almost) 4 years with roundabout 1500 columns. But it's version 2.05 that worked for me till yesterday when I replaced 2.05 by 3.18.0 ( well, a big step for me, a small for mankind )

OK, 2.05 is old. Very old, this behaviour could have been introduced many, many years ago... hahahahaha

You are absolutely right
Anyhow DenisChenu found the reason and solution: it's the php.ini max_input_vars= setting that is usually limited to values like 1000

By increasing the limit eg to
max_input_vars = 2000
everything is working fine again!

Did that the last time in 2016 and forgot

Thanks to you all!

I report another issue bugs.limesurvey.org/view.php?id=15339

Maybe about 15327: Data export stops after exactly 980 columns we must send a warning in export part ?

And a second one : 15340: Show a warning in export if max_input_vars OR allow «export ALL»

@holch
One last thought: LimeSurvey 2.05 served my needs for a couple of years and some really tricky surveys. So I think that's a great prove for the quality of LS!

Cheers to all

Oh, I am not saying that 2.05 is a bad piece of software. It was definitely one of the best releases Limesurvey had. However, when a software is that old doesn't receive any bug fixes or security updates, it can still serve the purpose, but you should still think about replacing it (which you finally did ).

In research we often work with private data and we need to make sure things are up to date. At least in my opinion. And 2.05 wasn't even the end of the branch, that was something like 2.06 LTS or Denis' fork that was (or still is?) providing bug fixes and security updates for this branch of Limesurvey.