Please help me to decode an Error message: what does it mean?

I am working in long document. I have cut and pasted some text from another word document into my main document. Now I am getting an error message which reads: "You have modified this citation since Zotero generated it. Do you want to keep your modifications and prevent future updates? clicking yes will prevent Zotero from updating this citation if you add additional citations, switch styles, or modify the item to which it refers. clicking 'no' will erase your changes." I tried clicking yes, but then it just kept going through every citation in my document, asking the same question. Would not allow me to exit, or cancel the action. I just had to shut down my computer. Then I tried clicking no. Same thing happened. As far as I know I did not ask it to modify anything. Hope someone understands what this means. Thank you.
  • The message means that the visible text of the citation was modified from what it originally was and no longer matches what it should be based on the underlying data. When that happens, Zotero can no longer automatically update the citation — which it needs to do as you add and remove other citations or edit items in Zotero — without overwriting your modification, so it needs to ask you whether to keep your changes or discard them.

    If you didn't mean to modify citations — which you generally shouldn't — you should click No and reset all your citations to their original text.

    Generally this happens when 1) you purposely modified the citations, 2) you accidentally edited a field (e.g., by typing within a field instead of outside of one), or 3) something went wrong with something like Track Changes that affected all fields in the document. The dialog box shows you the original and modified text, which should help explain why you're seeing it. You'd have to give some examples for us to say more.
  • Thanks very much dstillman for that explanation. Helpful knowledge in case it happens again.
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