Unlocking a linked with another account in Google docs

analle

Zotero won't let me edit my own document!
It says another user is using my document and they are not.
When I say to unlock it....and start to edit my document in Google docs..
Zotero freezes...

Any ideas? thanks

adomasven

Does this happen in a new document? If not, can you describe step-by-step what you're doing in your existing document and what happens?

analle

Good question. This is a document I was working on with my professor and he logged on the edit with Zotero. Then Zotero locked me out from editing going forward.
My professor says we have to start a whole new document and then hand enter/use Zotero again, where Zotero works. It might take 30 mines for a 19 page paper to start over. I don't know?

adomasven

You certainly don't need to start entering citations all over again, but you need to describe step by step what happens when you override the locking mechanism. Zotero pretty much never freezes, so you need to be precise in what you see. We don't see your screen and cannot help you unless you tell us what happens. Generally after overriding the lock you should be able to use the document normally and cite with Zotero.

analle

Ok cool thank you, so first I log in.
Second I try to use Zotero.
Then it says:
The document citations are being edited by another Zotero user. Please try again later.

I click on need help? button

Then it says this:
Zotero locks your document to prevent multiple users from editing citations at the same time. Concurrent citation editing in the document may lead to citation or document corruption. Certain unforeseeable circumstances, such as network failures, may lead to your document becoming permanently locked. If you believe this has happened, you can override the lock.

Would you like to override the document lock? Then I click on yes.
Then it says: Zotero is updating your document.
Please wait....
The Zotero search bar is pulled up on the Quick format citation tab and bar.
I enter the citation. Then the citation Quick format citation tab and bar freezes with the bar full green, but the citation doesn't go into the document. It is frozen.
Then close the document and the document is not edited and I contemplate starting over.
It says: Zotero is updating your document.
Please wait…
Nothing happens

Thanks!

adomasven

Could you produce a Debug ID from Zotero (not the Zotero Connector) for this operation?

analle

Here is the debug ID HD1581452376

analle

im just going to start over because i can be done soon. But thank you for the help!

adomasven

It seems like in your existing document you have multiple instances of bibliographies. You should remove all bibliography fields from your document first, then see if citing is fixed and if it is, attempt to reinsert the bibliography again.

This may just be some Google Docs document corruption, but in case it's a genuine Zotero bug, we would like to fix it so it would be helpful if you continue helping to troubleshoot this document, even if you won't be using it yourself.

cristina_crespo_montanes

I am experiencing the same issue as described above and would be happy to provide more info to help debug.

In my case, the plug-in worked really well for me but then another user that is an editor to the document added her citations and many duplicates of the bibliography appeared, including her and my citations. When I tried to refresh the bibliography I got the same error as described above. How can I refresh bibliography and de-freeze Zotero?

More broadly, I should be able to work with other google doc editors jointly on a bibliography, correct? We each have a different Zotero library but are working on the same document, adding different citations. Is this an ok approach or should we generate a shared Zotero library?

Thanks!

adomasven

Collaborative citing the way you are doing it is supported and generally does not cause any issues.

As for your problem, you should remove all instances of the existing bibliography and reinsert it, and see if the problem goes away.

cristina_crespo_montanes

I have deleted the bibliography (just cut it from the document) but I cannot reinsert it.

I keep getting the error "The document citations are being edited by another Zotero user. Please try again later." I also cannot add any citations because I have the same error pop up.

adomasven

Sorry for the late response, but you can click through that dialog for more info to override that error, which will allow you to edit the document with citations again.