Upgrade StorageWord + Track Changes + Zotero citations causing crashes, sync issues and duplicated text
Hi all,
I'm hoping to get some advice or hear from others who may have experienced similar issues.
We have a team collaborating on large Microsoft Word documents using Zotero citations and Track Changes. We've been experiencing persistent problems for quite some time (across multiple Zotero versions, including recent releases e.g. v10).
Our observations are:
Documents are generally stable when Zotero citations/field codes are present and Track Changes is off.
Once Track Changes is enabled, we start seeing a range of issues:
Word crashes unexpectedly.
Concurrent users are sometimes disconnected from the document.
Changes become very slow to save or sync.
Word occasionally duplicates sentences or paragraphs throughout the document, sometimes appearing as tracked changes and sometimes not.
The problem seems more noticeable in large collaborative documents with many citations and multiple contributors.
Current environment:
Microsoft Word (Microsoft 365 Apps)
Zotero (latest version)
Shared/collaborative documents with multiple simultaneous editors
Extensive use of citations and bibliography management
Track Changes enabled during review cycles
A few questions:
Has anyone experienced similar behaviour with Zotero and Track Changes?
Are there any known limitations or compatibility issues between Zotero field codes and Word's Track Changes functionality?
Could a very large Zotero library/database impact Word plugin performance?
Are there any recommended troubleshooting steps to help isolate the cause?
Are there Zotero logs, debug logs, Word add-in logs, or diagnostic reports that would be useful to collect before raising a formal issue?
We're particularly interested in identifying whether the issue is:
Zotero-related,
Word collaboration-related,
Track Changes-related,
or some combination of all three.
Any suggestions, troubleshooting methods, forum threads, or diagnostic tools would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
I'm hoping to get some advice or hear from others who may have experienced similar issues.
We have a team collaborating on large Microsoft Word documents using Zotero citations and Track Changes. We've been experiencing persistent problems for quite some time (across multiple Zotero versions, including recent releases e.g. v10).
Our observations are:
Documents are generally stable when Zotero citations/field codes are present and Track Changes is off.
Once Track Changes is enabled, we start seeing a range of issues:
Word crashes unexpectedly.
Concurrent users are sometimes disconnected from the document.
Changes become very slow to save or sync.
Word occasionally duplicates sentences or paragraphs throughout the document, sometimes appearing as tracked changes and sometimes not.
The problem seems more noticeable in large collaborative documents with many citations and multiple contributors.
Current environment:
Microsoft Word (Microsoft 365 Apps)
Zotero (latest version)
Shared/collaborative documents with multiple simultaneous editors
Extensive use of citations and bibliography management
Track Changes enabled during review cycles
A few questions:
Has anyone experienced similar behaviour with Zotero and Track Changes?
Are there any known limitations or compatibility issues between Zotero field codes and Word's Track Changes functionality?
Could a very large Zotero library/database impact Word plugin performance?
Are there any recommended troubleshooting steps to help isolate the cause?
Are there Zotero logs, debug logs, Word add-in logs, or diagnostic reports that would be useful to collect before raising a formal issue?
We're particularly interested in identifying whether the issue is:
Zotero-related,
Word collaboration-related,
Track Changes-related,
or some combination of all three.
Any suggestions, troubleshooting methods, forum threads, or diagnostic tools would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
In a multi-user setup, this issue is likely to be elevated.
There is a third-party plugin, ODF/DOCX Scan for Zotero that inserts text placeholders instead of full citations into a document, which can later be converted to active Zotero citations, which might help in preventing corruption at the expense of worse ergonomics.