Google scholar not working

I cannot save references from Google Scholar to Zotero on any browser (chrome, firefox, safari). my Zotero works with Amazon. When I try to save references to Zotero from google scholar it says "An error occurred while saving this item. See Troubleshooting Translator Issues for more information."

As of today Google scholar now has a "I am not a robot" captcha where one has to click pictures before you can access google scholar . .. I think this is what is preventing me from using Zotero.

Report ID: 457208409
  • that captcha only shows up when you're importing from google scholar a fair amount -- at that point, I'm afraid the only thing you can do is to wait for a day or so until it goes away.
  • I have the same problems. I have been waiting for a few days, but it still doesn't work. Can you help me please.
  • "the same problem" is always a bit vague. If you could describe exactly what you're seeing, that'd be helpful.
  • I cannot save references from Google Scholar to Zotero on any browser (chrome, firefox, safari). my Zotero works with Amazon. When I try to save references to Zotero from google scholar it says "An error occurred while saving this item. See Troubleshooting Translator Issues for more information."

    As of today Google scholar now has a "I am not a robot" captcha where one has to click pictures before you can access google scholar.

    It worked before this item "I am not a robot" occured.
  • Sorry, but I can read. If copy&pasting the above post would be helpful, I wouldn't have asked. Please describe the problem in your own words, including, e.g., what you were doing when this started happening, when exactly the captcha appears and anything else that might be helpful.
  • Hello, I am having the same problem since friday 23rd. I am doing a systematic review through google scholar and was using Chrome extension which was great because allowed me to added tags to the whole group of citations as I need. Everything was fine; I started to download all the citations I need from thursday (really not so many days but all the day downloading). On Friday evening it first asked me if I was a robot and from that moment it shoes me the message "An error occurred while saving this item. See Troubleshooting Translator Issues for more information". Doesn't matter the explorer; I already tried with mozilla and it says the same. I stopped the whole weekend from using zotero and now, monday, it shows me the same (first asking if i am not a robot and then the same messsage about translator".

    Can you help me? I already read that if there's a limit there are other options but as I am tagging from the explorer I would loss that option. Also In my review it is important to keep the engine search I am using and if I download the citations this is not saved.

    I would appreciate so much an assistance. Here, in Kew, people work with endnote but I say pretty good things about zotero, Don't make me change my opinion! ;)
  • Just to add: now it does not allow me even to save one citation at google scholar. It appears the same message about troubleshooting translator.

    Thanks in advance.
  • I'm afraid you're just hitting a google-imposed limit. For that reason, using scholar for systematic reviews is tricky. See https://www.zotero.org/support/getting_stuff_into_your_library#large-scale_imports_from_databases for how to make hitting that limit less likely. I'm pretty sure that's your only option here.
  • Can this be circumvented by using a VPN service and switching the IP each time Scholar slows/blocks you? Not elegant, but worth a shot?
  • you can try if your VPN allows that. You'll also need to clear cookies and make sure you're not signed into your Google account.
  • This is also exactly my problem, Zotero did not work or save citations from Google Scholar after Google asked for verification if I am not a robot (actually why would it even ask for verification when someone is using Google Scholar? And I was just on the third page of the results.)
  • G Lara: If you mean that you were saving multiple results, that's simply because Google has pretty strict access limits. When you save multiple results using Zotero, you are, essentially, making automated requests, which they'll do their best to block. See that page or the page adamsmith linked above for a workaround if you need to save many results.
  • When using Google Scholar for systematic reviews, first save the items to your Google Scholar library by clicking the star under the items, then export them as BibTeX all at once from the Google Scholar My Library page.
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