Copy-paste breaks Zotero links

chyzar
When I copy-paste text in Google Docs that contains Zotero links, the links break and I get notified (often much later) that they have become unlinked from Zotero. I have never had this problem before. I screenshotted the error - here's what it says:

500: Google Docs request failed.

{
"error": {
"code": 500,
"message": "Internal error encountered.",
"status": "INTERNAL"
}
}


Any suggestions?
  • adamsmith
    How are you copy&pasting? Ctrl+c/ctrl+v should work just fine as long as you have the Zotero connector installed. Drag&drop is known to not work
  • chyzar
    I’m using command+c/command+v (Mac) and the links are still breaking. It used to work just fine, but now it’s not. The Google Docs plugin is also SUPER slow lately and freezes.
  • dstillman
    Do you have Firefox installed? If so, try the latest version of the Zotero Connector for Firefox (5.0.97) and see if that fixes the problem.

    The underlying issue is likely the same as in another recent report — an underlying problem with the document triggering a Google Docs bug. You should be able to follow the last step on the Troubleshooting Errors in Word Processor Documents page to isolate the problematic part or parts of the document and removing them.

    But Zotero Connector 5.0.97 should avoid this, and if so we'll release that for Chrome soon.
  • chyzar
    I'm using Zotero in Chrome, not Firefox. I'll take a look at those links you provided.
  • chyzar
    Is there a projected release date for the new Chrome version?
  • chyzar
    Reporting back - this problem seems to happen with all citations. I've tried it with a variety of them throughout the document and it doesn't seem to matter which citation I try to copy-paste, so the troubleshooting steps in that article aren't helping. Open to other suggestions!
  • dstillman
    edited July 3, 2022
    No, you're misunderstanding the steps. The problem is with the document, not with the citations you're copying and pasting. To quote the section:
    Unless the error still occurs if you completely clear the contents of the document, this final step will by definition identify the problem.
  • chyzar
    I think I may have solved the problem. I followed the directions step by step until I deleted a citation that, when deleted, I was able to copy-paste elsewhere. The Google Docs Zotero connector is still painfully slow, but at least I'm not getting an error for now.
  • dstillman
    edited July 4, 2022
    If possible, could you 1) revert to a version of the document where this was still occurring, 2) make a copy of the document, 3) cut down the copy to just the part that triggered this error, 4) make another copy (to remove the document version history — we don't need access to any of your text), and 5) send a public share link of the document to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread? We've reported this to Google, but it'd be good to have another reproduction test case. You can then restore the original document to the current version and continue working.

    For the speed, you can try enabling Google Docs Integration v2 from the Advanced pane of the Zotero Connector preferences, which should dramatically speed it up.

    v2 is still in testing partly due to issues like this. In 5.0.96, the Connector actually accidentally used v2 for pasting regardless of that pref, and this Google Docs bug only occurs when using v2. The fix for this in 5.0.97 is to properly use the v1 integration method for pasting. But now that you've fixed the underlying issue in the document, you can likely use v2 for now without any problems and get the speed benefits.
  • adomasven
    @chyzar We received your document, but I can't seem to reproduce the issue in it. Make sure that the issue is reproducible in the document that you share with us.
  • chyzar
    I'm not sure that it is reproducible anymore, plus the problem is solved so I'm moving on. Thanks for your help!
  • dstillman
    edited July 5, 2022
    We released the update for Chrome mentioned above, so this would no longer occur if you have Google Docs Integration v2 disabled in the Advanced pane of the Zotero Connector preferences.

    But v2 provides a massive speed boost and will be the default in an upcoming version, so we'd like to debug this. If you're able to reproduce this with v2 enabled, it'd be great if you could provide a test document to do so.
  • chyzar
    I thought I had mentioned this above, but I'm not seeing it. The v2 box is grayed out in my preferences.
  • dstillman
    edited July 6, 2022
    Can you take a screenshot, upload it somewhere (e.g., Dropbox or Google Drive), and provide a link here? It should only be grayed out if Google Docs integration itself directly above that is disabled, which obviously you don't want to do.
  • chyzar
    Google Docs integration is enabled, but v2 is grayed out. Here's the link:
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1StCm3JhO2Jcg2T3qR3QumdyPJj_YtFAq3Nuwq8iULtM/edit?usp=sharing
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