diff --git a/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/date.js b/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/date.js
index c480a0590..08c69a391 100644
--- a/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/date.js
+++ b/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/date.js
@@ -315,7 +315,7 @@ Zotero.Date = new function(){
 				}
 				
 				if(date.month) date.month--;		// subtract one for JS style
-				Zotero.debug("DATE: retrieved with algorithms: "+date.toSource());
+				Zotero.debug("DATE: retrieved with algorithms: "+JSON.stringify(date));
 				
 				date.part = m[1]+m[7];
 			} else {
diff --git a/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/translation/translate.js b/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/translation/translate.js
index 9c5594b72..6782b664a 100644
--- a/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/translation/translate.js
+++ b/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/translation/translate.js
@@ -1151,13 +1151,7 @@ Zotero.Translate.Base.prototype = {
 			this._sandboxManager.eval("var translatorInfo = "+translator.code,
 				["detect"+this._entryFunctionSuffix, "do"+this._entryFunctionSuffix, "Export"]);
 		} catch(e) {
-			if(translator.logError) {
-				translator.logError(e.toString());
-			} else {
-				Zotero.logError(e);
-			}
-			
-			this.complete(false, "parse error");
+			this.complete(false, e);
 		}
 		
 		if(callback) callback();
@@ -1701,15 +1695,19 @@ Zotero.Translate.Export.prototype._prepareTranslation = function() {
 	}
 	
 	// initialize IO
+	// this is currently hackish since we pass null callbacks to the init function (they have
+	// callbacks to be consistent with import, but they are synchronous, so we ignore them)
 	if(!this.location) {
-		var io = this._io = new Zotero.Translate.IO.String(null, this.path ? this.path : "", this.translator[0].configOptions["dataMode"]);
+		var io = this._io = new Zotero.Translate.IO.String(null, this.path ? this.path : "");
+		io.init(this.translator[0].configOptions["dataMode"], function() {});
 		this.__defineGetter__("string", function() { return io.string; });
 	} else if(!Zotero.Translate.IO.Write) {
 		throw new Error("Writing to files is not supported in this build of Zotero.");
 	} else {
-		this._io = new Zotero.Translate.IO.Write(this.location,
-			this.translator[0].configOptions["dataMode"],
-			this._displayOptions["exportCharset"] ? this._displayOptions["exportCharset"] : null);
+		this._io = new Zotero.Translate.IO.Write(this.location);
+		this._io.init(this.translator[0].configOptions["dataMode"],
+			this._displayOptions["exportCharset"] ? this._displayOptions["exportCharset"] : null,
+			function() {});
 	}
 	
 	this._sandboxManager.importObject(this._io);
diff --git a/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/translation/translate_firefox.js b/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/translation/translate_firefox.js
index 46524fc3b..70dc4b2f4 100644
--- a/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/translation/translate_firefox.js
+++ b/chrome/content/zotero/xpcom/translation/translate_firefox.js
@@ -465,13 +465,12 @@ function() {
 
 /******* Write support *******/
 
-Zotero.Translate.IO.Write = function(file, mode, charset) {
+Zotero.Translate.IO.Write = function(file) {
 	Zotero.Translate.IO.maintainedInstances.push(this);
 	this._rawStream = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/network/file-output-stream;1"]
 		.createInstance(Components.interfaces.nsIFileOutputStream);
 	this._rawStream.init(file, 0x02 | 0x08 | 0x20, 0664, 0); // write, create, truncate
 	this._writtenToStream = false;
-	if(mode || charset) this.reset(mode, charset);
 }
 
 Zotero.Translate.IO.Write.prototype = {
@@ -528,7 +527,7 @@ Zotero.Translate.IO.Write.prototype = {
 		this._writtenToStream = true;
 	},
 	
-	"reset":function(newMode, charset) {
+	"init":function(newMode, charset, callback) {
 		this._mode = newMode;
 		if(Zotero.Translate.IO.rdfDataModes.indexOf(this._mode) !== -1) {
 			this._initRDF();