Modified biblatex export overwritten during Zotero update

jj.meyer

Hello,

I'm using Zotero on Windows 10. I customized the BibLaTeX.js export file in my user folder (C:\[User]\Zotero\translators\BibLaTeX.js) to change the format of citekeys and to remove some fields from the export.

After some update of Zotero, the export did however revert to the original state, while the file in my user folder is still unchanged.

How can I change the BibLaTeX export in a way that persists even during Zotero updates? Is there a different folder where another copy of the file resides?

jj.meyer

I just found a second BibLaTeX.js file under [User]\OneDrive\documents\zotero\translators\BibLaTeX.js which seems to have taken precedence over the BibLaTeX.js file in my regular user directory. After replacing this the behaviour of Zotero was as expected.

The main question, however, is still: What is the canonical way to make a persistant change to the BibLaTeX export?

emilianoeheyns

Rename it and change its ID in the header. Or use BBT.

adamsmith

You also want to make absolutely sure that your Zotero data directory is not in [User]\OneDrive\documents\zotero\ -- while it doesn't matter a lot for the translator part, having the data folder sync with a service like OneDrive is a recipe for (database corruption) disaster.

And yes, I'd recommend using BetterBibTeX -- which has built-in capabilities to finetune citkeys and customize exported fields -- rather than relying on your own custom version of the translator

jj.meyer

Thanks for that feedback!

I am having my Zotero data directory on the OneDrive, but as I'm not syncing to Zotero online I haven't had any problems so far (except for the aforementioned BibLaTeX renaming issue).

I'll have a look at BetterBibTeX, but I also very much like the solution of just renaming it.

dstillman

It has nothing to do with Zotero syncing.

https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/data_directory_in_cloud_storage_folder

We won't provide any support here as long as you're using that setup.