Error while inserting citation into LibreOffice Document

Fini1984

Hi community
I'm working with LibreOffice 5.1.4.2 and the LO ZOTERO plugin. I use the ZOTERO standalone version 4.0.29.10. (operation system: Ubuntu 16.04).
In May 2016 I wrote a term paper with this constellation and hat no problems.
Now, I'm writing my bachelor thesis but time and again there's a hang-up while inserting a citation into my LO document. It occurs whether there is a bibliography in the document or not. I then have to kill the LO process.
It is not dependend on the source that I selected for the citation - I used the same source successfully for several times and by adding the next citation, there is a hang-up.
The success bar stops at about 2/3 of the maximum level and does continue. There's no error message occuring.
When there was a hang-up at one citation, it occurs again after re-opening the document and trying it anew.
Anyone an idea?
Thank you very much and
best regards
Fini

adamsmith

How about in a fresh document. Same problem there?

Fini1984

Hi adamsmith
the problem occurs in different documents. I started them all today. As I wrote: Some citations can be inserted successfully and then the error occurs :(

adamsmith

I don't think we've ever seen this. Which citation style? Have you tried with different styles? Anything else that could be unusual? e.g. are you inserting citations in tables or image captions?

Fini1984

Harvard Reference Format 7 is the citation style. I'll try it with a different style and then report here.
No, nothing unusual in my perspective - just normal citations in the running text.

Fini1984

Hi
I now tried a different citation style, but this has no effect on the occurence of the error :-(
Is there a maximum number of citations of the same source that can be handled in one document?
It's really annoying, because I waste a lot of time with restarting the programs and when I forgot to save before inserting a citation, my last work ist lost as I have to kill the LO process every time the error occurs....
Kind regards

adamsmith

No, no such limit. I really don't know what's going on and you're the only person reporting it. I guess I'd try to update LibreOffice (presumably from their website rather than using the Ubuntu-packaged version)

gerver

I have the same problem, I believe it started when I updated to the new LO version. I'm using LibreOffice 5.1.4.2 with the Zotero plugin, and Zotero in Firefox. Often (not always) LO completely freezes when inserting a citation. I have to kill the process and restart it. For the Zotero plugin to work again I also need to kill the Firefox process and restart, though it doesn't freeze. There is not really a pattern in the error, the same citation in the same document one time gives the error, then doesn't. Sometimes the first attempt in an otherwise empty document freezes the program, sometimes (rarely) it doesn't happen at all in a document with many citations. My guess would be it has to something to do with the updated version of LO... I will try to update LO through the website to see if it solves anything.

adamsmith

Thanks @gerver -- is that also on Ubuntu?

gerver

Forgot that part... Yes, Ubuntu 16.04

adomasven

I managed to reproduce this once on 5.1.4.2, but not again, after trying many inserts.

There are many moving parts and failure points with LO, but from my one successful test it did not seem to be a Zotero problem. You should try upgrading to 5.1.6, which is the newest version on the 5.1 branch, or 5.2.2 and see if that fixes the issue first.

Fini1984

I updated Libre office to the newest (stable) version from the website, but didn't achieved improvement.

frapart

Dear Zotero users,

I have the same problem. I am using MacOS Sierra, I upgraded Zotero to the latest version. When I wanted to insert citation in a libre office writer text, th eb ox to select the citation does not pop up. I upgraded JRE and Libre Office, it doesn't help.
Best regards

Fini1984

Hi frapart I guess your problem is a different one: I can select the citation, but while inserting it, the success bar freezes and LO and zotero processes must be killed.

adamsmith

Yes, @frapart, different issue. See here: https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_troubleshooting#libreoffice_51_on_mac_os_x_el_capitanno_response_from_plugin and if that doesn't help, please start a new thread.

frapart

Thank you forgive me for the mistakes

Fini1984

any further ideas for solving the issue?

adomasven

You could try updating your JRE (or perhaps an JRE update that came out after May 2016 broke it, so try downgrading). Otherwise it's a difficult one to debug and even if it were possible to reproduce reliably it is almost certainly an issue with JRE or LO.

gerver

I tried if the error occurred on a different computer with similar installation or the same computer with another clean Ubuntu user account, and it didn't (though I didn't use the same Zotero library, for some reason it gave an error when importing it). I guess it is either something solved with a clean install or that alternatively the size of the zotero library is the problem: I'm using a library with 5000+ items on a not-so-fast computer...
Anyway I suppose a clean Ubuntu install or updating LO or cleaning up the zotero library would solve the problem, but before trying these options I want to finish what I'm writing (I have the irrational fear that everything will stop working or get lost or something, some end-of-Phd phobia I guess...).