Zotero noting the same source as 2 different sources 'a' and 'b' - how do I fix?

lkhan3ie · February 27, 2023

Hi, we're citing one source a few dozen times in a document. We didn't have any issues before, but for some reason now, Zotero has recognized it as a different and added an 'a' or 'b' to all of the citations for the source. But we only have 1 source! I had initially been using a personal library before creating a shared/group library. I edited every in-line citation to refer to the source in the group library, and I even deleted everything from the personal library and permanently deleted the trash folders from the personal and group libraries, and hit 'refresh' every time. But it doesn't seem to have fixed the issue. The paper now shows xyz 'a' for everything in-line (no more xyz 'b') and 2 references in the bibliography. Has anyone else run into this issue? Any suggestions for how to fix? Other than manually deleting and re-entering in every citation if possible! Thanks :)

dstillman · February 28, 2023

The paper now shows xyz 'a' for everything in-line (no more xyz 'b') and 2 references in the bibliography.

This just means you still have at least part of a citation from the other library. You can toggle Word field codes and look at the zotero.org URIs or the metadata to find the remaining citation.

I even deleted everything from the personal library and permanently deleted the trash folders from the personal and group libraries

This was very much not correct or necessary, by the way. Citations stay in the document whether or not they're in your library.