'This item no longer exists in your Zotero database'

treeks · February 24, 2012

Hi,
When I try to refresh or add a citation I receive the message'This item no longer exists in your Zotero database. Do you want to select a substitute item?'This prevents me from adding new citations.
The reference is 'Scarborough, R M, J W Rose, M A Hsu, D R Phillips, V A Fried, A M Campbell, L Nannizzi, and I F Charo. 1991. “Barbourin. A GPIIb-IIIa-specific integrin antagonist from the venom of Sistrurus m. barbouri.” The Journal of Biological Chemistry 266 (15) (May 25): 9359-9362. It is represented in my library.
Also, when I checked my bibliography I found a number of references were like the following '———. 1992. “Structural domains in venom proteins: evidence that metalloproteinases and nonenzymatic platelet aggregation inhibitors (disintegrins) from snake venoms are derived by proteolysis from a common precursor.” Toxicon: Official Journal of the International Society on Toxinology 30 (3) (March): 265-293.' In other words, the author has been deleted!!!
I sync Zotero 3.0.3 between a PC and a Mac. Both computers contained a number of duplicate items which I have since merged. Both computers contain a large number of items in the trash, which I am reluctant to delete as I am unsure if they are still included in my library or if it would affect my bibliography.
I have tried to fix the problem by accessing the associated Zotero forums, but as my computer knowledge is somewhat limited, I have obviously had no luck.
This review needs to be submitted next week, so any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Regards
Tim

dstillman · February 24, 2012

1) Items in the trash are considered missing in 3.0.

2) With the above in mind, the error message means what it says. What you see in your library is irrelevant—Zotero uses an internal identifier, not any of the item's visible data, so if you deleted some duplicates manually (rather than using the duplicate merging function in 3.0) you could easily have deleted the item your citation is pointing to. Just reselect the one still in your library.

Also, when I checked my bibliography I found a number of references were like the following '———. 1992.

That's just whatever style you're using handling repeated authors.

treeks · February 24, 2012

Thanks Dan.
Ref 1), are you saying these can be deleted. I have checked some of them and they are still contained in the library.
Ref 2), I did try that when the problem first arose with no luck, but now it is fixed. Thanks
Ref 3) To fix repeated authors, do these need to be added manually?
Cheers

dstillman · February 24, 2012

1) If you don't need them, they can be deleted.

3) No. You're using a bibliographic style that does that. If that's not the style you want, you should pick a different one.

treeks · February 24, 2012

Thanks Dan

cforden · May 14, 2012

Hi, I have several times received the message "This item no longer exists in your Zotero database...", but for me it always applies to every reference in my paper, not just a few that I have manually duplicated or trashed. Somewhat like Dan, I have been migrating my paper across several computers and using (not sync'ing) my Zotero database across several OS's and logins on one computer. When every reference goes missing there are problems beyond just the sheer number missing; to figure out which reference is being indicated, I have to Cancel out of the dialog box, see which citation is left highlighted, then go to another copy of my paper whose bibliography is open in another window to see which journal article the citation refers to. Then I can choose a substitute.
Some additional features that might help:
1. Right-clicking on the collection or library in the left pane could present an additional menu item to show the user which file (or (horrors!) registry key) stores that collection or library.
2. When none of the citations match my collection, some help in choosing/finding the library or collection would be nice.
3. Somewhere in the Word or Office doc, the pathname of the collection should be stored-- not for every citation, but as a hidden field associated with the bibliography perhaps.
4. Storing a few extra characters, in addition to the DB ID #, for every citation might allow some hints like first author's last name, year, and a checksum of the title, for example. These could be used to automatically suggest a few possible replacements.
5. At a minimum-- and this should be easy to implement-- the dialog box that tells you the "item no longer exists" should list the citation #, and bibliography entry. The dialog should be non-modal, allowing the user to choose the replacement while looking at that info.
Thanks, --Chris

adamsmith · May 14, 2012

I don't think devs will invest the time for this.

Since Zotero 3.0, "Store References in Document" is a default setting and this error won't occur for documents with that setting turned on.

cforden · May 17, 2012

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried clicking on the "Zotero Set Doc Prefs" icon in Word's Add-Ins ribbon tab. Unfortunately, the error-message dialog box popped up again telling me that "This item no longer exists in your Zotero database...". The only safe response seemed to be to click the Cancel button.

adamsmith · May 17, 2012

This wasn't intended as a solution to your problem - when you get that message it's too late.
My point is that because of the "Store References" option (and the fact that it's set as default), this issue is very unlikely to occur in the future, i.e. for documents written with Zotero version from 3.0 upwards and so making it easier to deal with it (as per your 5 suggestions) is probably not something that devs will take time to implement.

cforden · May 28, 2012

It worked! I went back to my old (Win 7 admin) login, opened the Word doc, clicked the "Zotero Bibliographic Management: Zotero Set Doc Prefs" (gear) icon in the Add-Ins ribbon tab, and was able to check the "Store References in Document" checkbox, no problem. Then I closed the doc, switched over to my newer (non-admin) Win 7 login, opened the doc, and all the refs were properly linked. Now I can work in any login on any computer (I presume). It doubled my doc size, but well worth it! It hardly took any time at all to add the refs internally into the doc. Thanks so much! I eventually figured out what was going on, thanks to your explanation; when I use even a different user account on the same computer, my new database that I copied into the new user account from the old database, or an export of the old database, does not automatically connect to the refs in my paper. Embedding them solves all that. I feel sooooooo much better now! :)
I had created the original Z db as an admin while I was still configuring my computer. Eventually I switched to a non-admin account so I could more safely surf the web while writing my paper and following any unknown link or URL. Now I can use either account. I haven't tried moving the paper back and forth to my laptop yet, but I probably will try that too eventually.