Zotero deletes my whole document

Gavin Koh
Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Word:Mac 2011, Zotero 2.0.9

I can't replicate the problem consistently, but sometimes when I add a citation, Word and Firefox are both busy for about 5 minutes and then suddenly Zotero starts deleting my entire document, starting from the insertion point and then scrolling round to the beginning until the whole document is deleted.
Command + Z doesn't help! I have to go back to a previously saved version.
  • Gavin Koh
    After inserting the citation, Word seizes up and a little window keeps flashing (for just a millisecond each time):
    "Word is converting tmp8cXd.rtf
    Press Command + , to Cancel."

    I can stop Zotero from wiping the document by pressing Command + ,
    I then get the error message:

    "Zotero experienced an error updating your document.

    COMMAND: app(u'Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Microsoft Word.app').active_document.fields[317].result_range.content.set('')"

    By the way…why does Zotero use "Command + ,"? This is also the default keyboard shortcut for application preferences.
  • Gavin Koh
    Right. More to report.
    Zotero is not actually deleting my document. It is writing over every character in the document with "[space] [space] [space]..." or "***..." or "[CR] [CR] [CR]..." or some other random character.
  • Simon
    Can you make a copy of the document, attempt to reproduce this, let Zotero finish running, and then email the file to support@zot...org? We've never heard of this happening before.

    For what it's worth, the Cancel keyboard shortcut is Microsoft's doing. Not sure why it's Cmd+, instead of Cmd+.
  • staceyscott
    I had the same thing happen to me. Any resolution of this?
  • adamsmith
    when you say "same thing" - do you actually get the exact same error messages and symptoms, or just broadly speaking "Zotero deletes my whole document"? If the latter, start a new thread, provide as much detail as possible.
    If you're really seeing exactly the same issue, send the document to the e-mail as directed by Simon above, referencing this thread.
  • Simon
    I think the original issue here was this, which is actually a bug in Word that can also be triggered without Zotero. If you're experiencing it, upgrade to the latest version of Word 2011, which might be fixed.

This is an old discussion that has not been active in a long time. Before commenting here, you should strongly consider starting a new discussion instead. If you think the content of this discussion is still relevant, you can link to it from your new discussion.

Sign In or Register to comment.