Need help -- unable to form citations

mlannigan
Error Report ID: 1893764853

Apologies about the desperation in this one, but I have two 30-paged documents with over 100 citations that need to be edited in the next two days for my finals. "Add/edit citation" is not working: it will load and ask for the document I'm trying to cite, then when I put the document in, it traps me in a perpetual state of loading that freezes the document. Additionally, I cannot edit existing citations. It gives me an error "Selected field kOn1ng not returned from Docs backend." I have uninstalled Zotero and the connector, restarted my computer, closed the window and reopened, closed out of the doc and tried on another, and everything that I could think of. I'm on Google Chrome using Google Docs. Any insight would be much appreciated!
  • dstillman
    Does it work if you choose a different item to cite?

    If not, make a copy of the document (File → Make a copy), and then back in the original document try reverting to an earlier version of the document — before the last successful citation you inserted — via the Google Docs version history and see if it works in that version.
  • mlannigan
    edited December 21, 2021
    Now, when I click "add/edit citation," nothing is coming up, not even the bar where I can type in what document to cite. It is not responding at all when I click that. I made a copy and restored an earlier version and neither work.
  • dstillman
    Restart your browser and Zotero and try again. Make sure the citation dialog isn't just coming up behind your main Zotero window.

    If you're still having trouble, restart them again and provide a Debug ID (different from a Report ID) from Zotero for clicking Add/Edit Citation not working.
  • mlannigan
    I restarted my doc and Zotero, and that made it so "add/edit citation" did revert to bringing up the bar where I can type in my document. The problem from my first post persisted, however, but in a different form. Instead of a perpetual loading, it loads, but the footnote on the page just says "{Updating}" without ever actually loading my citation. I tried this with another citation, too, and it said the same. When I try to click and update the "{Updating}", it says "Selected field lQi5am not returned from Docs backend." Thank you so so much for your continued help.

    Here is my debug ID: D796159214
  • dstillman
    (3)(+0000000): Integration: http-addEditCitation:'11J-KI6lNNyP-jmpM3Dsf47gmpP3fyjdDIr3W1UYatVk' complete in 7.136s
    The debug output seems to show a successful operation in 7 seconds (including typing the search and selecting an item). If you're saying the document isn't updating after that, can you restart Zotero and the browser and provide two separate Debug IDs, from both Zotero and the Zotero Connector, for an operation that hangs like this?
    When I try to click and update the "{Updating}"
    Don't do that. That's a placeholder in the document, and you should never touch that manually except to delete it if you're sure an operation failed.
  • mlannigan
    Okay so I reset Zotero again (not my document) and it went back to perpetual loading. Here is the debug ID I got from Zotero: D1608965230

    I reset Zotero and the doc and I got this debug ID from Zotero: D590051299

    Then, I reset Zotero and the doc again and I got this debug ID from the Connector: D1113109188

    And I won't try updating the "{Updating}." It just sits there without changing; I know occasionally in the past it would be like that for a moment before the citation fully loaded in, but it is in a perpetual state of "{Updating}" in this circumstance, so I'm pretty sure the operation failed.
  • mlannigan
    Also, if you want to see my error report ID from the Connector, it is here: 969314639
  • dstillman
    (3)(+0000001): Integration: http-addEditCitation:'11J-KI6lNNyP-jmpM3Dsf47gmpP3fyjdDIr3W1UYatVk' complete in 27.045s
    (3)(+0000001): GDocs: Updating doc. Batch 32, numItems: 1
    Error: Non-fatal Google Docs Error: An error occurred while updating fields. ["IR9qh1"]
    OK, it does look like there was an error updating fields. @adomasven will have to take a look.

    To be clear, you tried inserting a citation in a new document, and you also tried multiple different previous positions in the history, including before other Zotero insert operations that were successful? If you still get the error after reverting to a previous version of the document that was working successfully, there may not be an answer here other than that it's a temporary error from Google Docs. But Adomas can say more.
  • mlannigan
    That is all correct. However, I just went back through and tried to add a citation and it worked. It is being finnicky with some of my other documents, though: I tried adding a citation into another doc and it didn't work, then I deleted and tried again and it did. I'm not sure if adomasven did something or if perhaps the error from Docs is passing, but the situation has seemed to improve a bit. There are still some issues, though, as I said.
  • dstillman
    No, Adomas didn't do anything. So this is likely just Google Docs being fickle, which is possible on larger documents.

    If you haven't yet, it may help to disable "Automatically update citations" in the plugin's Document Preferences window for each document, which can reduce the number of field updates it has to make. See Faster Citing in Large Documents for details.
  • mlannigan
    I just tried to disable "Automatically update citations" and it once again trapped my document in perpetual freeze. The same problem is also now once again recurring with the citations. I am repeatedly getting stuck on "{Updating}" again. Could Adomas still take a look at the problem and see if there's a solution? This is still presenting a lot of trouble.
  • adomasven
    What do you mean by "perpetual freeze"? Could you make a screen recording of a failing insertion, upload it somewhere and post a link here (or if you want to keep it confidential email it to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread)?
  • mlannigan
    I just sent support@zotero.org an email. Thanks for your help with this. I have a feeling it may be an issue with my Zotero instead of Google Docs. This problem has persisted to now, and while there were a few times in which the "add/edit citation" function did work as normal, its now back to its same problem of either freezing (the green loading bar shows up and the doc turns grey and neither go away), or the citation pops up but just says "{Updating}". It is mostly still not working.
  • adomasven
    You can also try testing with other Chrome extensions disabled and if that doesn't change anything then test in a different browser.
  • dstillman
    @mlannigan: In addition to the things Adomas suggests, can you provide a Debug ID for what you showed in the video, where the overlay just disappears after a while? That would be different from the Debug IDs you showed previously where the citation dialog appeared.

    Have you checked to make sure that the citation dialog didn't just appear behind your Zotero window? (It's part of the Zotero app, not the browser.)
  • mlannigan
    I did check to make sure it did not just disappear. It just goes away and leaves the footnote "{Updating}." Here is a Debug ID from Zotero: D1024789242. Here is a Debug ID from the Connector: D129811334. I removed my other Chrome extensions and it still did not work. It is working on Edge, so I have switched to that for now, but I do all my work in Chrome and would really like to have it working there if possible.
  • adomasven
    @mlannigan So unfortunately I'm now even more confused as to what the problem you're having is and how it manifests.

    1. What do you mean by "perpetual freeze"? What steps do you take and what happens?

    2. The video you sent us certainly shows strange behavior. What I saw was you clicking Add/Edit Citation, Zotero processing and instead of showing the citation dialog it ends the citation operation leaving an {Updating} in your document. That should never happen. What happens after that? Can you cite again or do you have to restart Zotero/browser before citing works again?

    3. The Debug ID above from Zotero shows you successfully citing an item. Did you encounter any issue when generating it? We only want a Debug ID for an operation that fails to do what it should in some way.
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