Are you an Applied Biosystems (ABI) 3500 Series user running into a frustrating error when trying to set up your sequencing run? You're not alone. We've seen an issue pop up where the software throws a "Could not create the view: An unexpected exception was thrown, java.lang.NullPointerException" error specifically when generating the 'Load Plates for Run' page. The rest of the Data Collection software seems fine—you can define plates, assign content, and navigate other menus. But that crucial step of linking the plate to the run is blocked. If restarting the instrument and computer hasn't helped, the cause is likely a surprisingly simple one: your Plate Record folder is full!