"Zotero field code ... has been corrupted"

MM CW Project
I'm getting the message ""The Zotero field code corresponding to this citation, which tells Zotero which item in your library this citation represents, has been corrupted. Would you like to reselect the item? <etc.>" I dutifully reselected my items (slightly less than half of my citations) but then continued to get this same error message every time I try to insert a new citation.

After searching the fora, I followed the instructions Simon gave to Stan in this thread, http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/15032/the-field-code-in-this-document-is-corrupted/, as my problem seemed like Stan's and I did have track changes on, but this deleted a good chunk of my bibliography. At this point I just closed my document without saving changes so I'm back where I began, with the corrupted field code error message. I'm using zotero 2.1.1, Word 2008 12.2.1, and the problem started after I installed the macword integration 3.1.1.
  • Simon
    By "bibliography", do you mean the bibliography at the end of the text? If so, turn track changes off, accept the changes, and you should be able to re-generate it by clicking "Refresh". There's no way to fix this unless you accept the changes to your document, since this error is being caused by an invalid citation in one of the tracked changes.
  • MM CW Project
    Ah. I tried this previously, but only accepting the changes marked as "field code" changes, which is when my bibliography semi-disappeared upon refreshing. If I accept all changes in the document, this method works--but now my co-writer will have no idea what I've changed. Is there an in-between solution?
  • mpinuela
    You just need to go to review and uncheck the Insertions and Deletions option when updating your bibliography.
  • hillr1
    Did you ever find something that works?! I have a mountain of changes tracked and about 100+ citations, would prefer not to go through this one by one
  • adamsmith
    Could you step back and say exactly which problem you're having?
  • tgrebel
    I'm having the same problem. I copied and pasted a short document into a larger text, and now cannot edit or newly insert Zotero citations into my larger text.

    The shorter text had been edited with Track changes before being entered into the larger text.

    Following previous threads, I selected everything and hit "accept" for track changes. There is no change.

    I cannot add or edit any Zotero citation in my document. I am only getting an error message: "The Zotero field code corresponding to this citation, which tells Zotero which item in your library this citation represents, has been corrupted. Would you like to reselect the item?
  • adamsmith
    you should have an option to reselect a corrupted item. Have you tried that?
  • tgrebel
    Each time I reselect, the same message pops up - I am told to again reselect the item. This goes for every single citation I have tried to edit in the document.

    What do I do?
  • tgrebel
    Update: Using the Microsoft Word Zotero standalone add-in, I can add a citation to a different document, cut, and paste into my larger text.

    Once in my larger text, though, it still says the field code is corrupted. I cannot edit the Zotero style, specific citation, or add another citation while writing in that larger text.
  • tbarkley
    I had this same problem. I was working with a document in tracked changes and deleted a footnote meaning all the following footnotes were changed. The field code corruption error happened in Zotero. Following this thread and previous ones I accepted all tracked changes and tried to refresh but just got the same error.

    Eventually, I partially solved the problem using the compare function in Word. I compared the corrupt document with my previous version, but in the compare window deselected 'footnotes and endnotes' in the extended options. I could then save the document with the old uncorrupted footnotes. This only worked for me because I had only been working on the text not the footnotes.
  • Grywat_Con
    Hi everyone,

    we had the same problem with a report several people were writing on with "tracking changes" activated.
    In our case, we figured that the above mentioned problem could be solved by:

    1) Opening the the document
    2) Clicking the "Refresh" button under in the Zotero plugin
    3) Waiting a minute or so (depending on the size of your document)
    4) Clicking "No" on every message popping up

    After that, at least in our case, citations can be added again and also the bibliography could be refreshed without any further problems.

    Hope this helps at least some of you!

    Best regards and a great day to everyone!
  • gillianmcc
    Hi there, I'm having the same issue. After merging a document with comments into a document with tracked changes I can't insert any new citations and I keep getting the error message saying field codes have been corrupted. I've turned off track changes and accepted all changes, and tried all the yes, no and cancel options on the error message. No change so far. Any advice? I'm working on a 400 page document. Thanks.
  • adamsmith
    I'm afraid you'll have to run through https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_troubleshooting#debugging_broken_documents
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