Inking bug in zotero 7: parts of inking notes disappear

jonatanoj

I am using zotero 7 beta version on mac desktop.
I use the inking functionality to take notes on the pdfs.
I am not sure when this happens but parts of my inking notes get erased.
This is a bit of a problem as there seems to be no way of getting them back and important notes are thus lost forever.

jonatanoj

I was super excited by this new inking feature on desktop, but this problem unfortunately makes it virtually unusable, everything seems fine and then suddenly 5mn later, I go back through the document and notes are partly erased!

jonatanoj

also what is strange is that ink annotations that seem perfectly fine and stable (don't get erased) even after multiple syncs and adding more ink notes, will suddenly out of nowhere get partly erased further down the line!

martynas_b

Does it happen with each ink annotation or, for example, only with the long ones?

jonatanoj

The lengths seem to be quite diverse for those where this is happening, but hard to say exactly.
So no not each of them, but i would say there are some comparably long ones where it doesn't happen.
And then as mentioned, you are never sure you are safe because they seem fine and the suddenly they get partly erased

martynas_b

Can you provide a Debug ID for it happening?

pganty

I figured out what's happening. When you erase an area with the eraser on page X, it erases that very same area on page X but also on all other pages.
To reproduce that:
1. create a PDF file with at least two pages (preferably blank page)
2. doodle on both pages with the inking (I used different colors)
3. pick the eraser and erase part of the doodle on one page, it also erases the same area of the doodle on the other page.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u5444085/58h64ruh6guubv1lwehk.png

pganty

I can't believe this bug got unnoticed for such a long time. I am using Zotero 7.0.9 (ARM64) on macOS 14.7, but the problem is not new. It actually discouraged me to use handwritten notes because they would disappear for "no reason". When reviewing papers, the ability to write notes with a pen in the margin (via a graphic tablet) is quite useful.

FYI:
locale => en-US, extensions => Better BibTex for Zotero (6.7.251, extension), OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems, Inc. (1.8.1.2, plugin), Widevine Content Decryption Module provided by Google Inc. (4.10.2710.0, plugin)

jonatanoj

@pganty fantastic! Well done for finding this.
I just gave up and stopped using it... hope they can fix it now aa the functionality is awesome

martynas_b

Good catch! Sorry about that. We’ll fix it in the next update.

dstillman

This should be fixed in the latest Zotero beta.