Notes data disappearing/overwriting

rsa
I'm having problems with the data in my notes disappearing, or attaching itself to other records, and overwriting data. The item record is still there, and there is still an indication there is a note, but the data in the note is either gone (so a blank note), or is the wrong data and belongs with another item.

I'm updated to Zotero for Firefox 4.0.4 on all three of the computers syncing the library. They all run on Windows.

The steps I took when I noticed this:
1. Expanded item with arrow, and clicked on note. Noticed note data was incorrect.
2. Tried searching for data to see if it was elsewhere. Had no luck.
3. Started looking at other notes to see if this was the only occurence and this is when I noticed some notes were attached to more than one item, correctly in one instance, but not in the other.
4. In looking at other notes, noticed some were now blank.
5. Some notes cannot be opened from the right panel, but can be opened when you double-click on the note title from the middle panel so they open separately, but this seems to open the previous note I looked at, not the correct one. This then seems to replace (?) the note data with the previous note data.

I'm not sure if me trying to open notes is what is overriding things? But what I thought was just missing notes, seems to be notes overwriting other notes (maybe?).

Any thoughts?


Report ID: 1075251532
«13
  • adamsmith
    I don't believe I've ever seen something like that.
    Check your database integrity from the advanced tab of the preferences.

    Any unusual add-ons you have installed on Firefox?
  • rsa
    When I checked the database integrity it says: No errors were found in the database.

    And I don't think I have any unusual add-ons (Ad Blocker, some Java and Adobe plugins). This is actually a work computer, so I am not the only one who uses it, so there may some unknown things lurking.
  • rsa
    I should clarify it's happening on all the computers.
  • adamsmith
    are you using the computer with separate accounts? Otherwise, would it be possible that someone else has accidentally (hopefully) done something in your Zotero database?
  • rsa
    We all use the same account on the different computers, and all work with the same library. We are actually using it to catalog review books and reviewers for a journal.
  • dstillman
    Is that Report ID from immediately after this occurred? There are no Zotero errors in there, unfortunately.

    Are you able to reproduce this reliably?
  • rsa
    It's been doing the same thing - with a few variations - on all the computers all day. We've been trying to figure out exactly what was happening. At first we thought it was just missing notes, but then it also seemed to be replacing note data on more than one computer. Though not always, sometimes the note would stay blank.

    I'm not sure at what point of restarting Firefox/Zotero along the way that I ran the report. Should I run another one?
  • aurimas
    We all use the same account on the different computers, and all work with the same library. We are actually using it to catalog review books and reviewers for a journal.
    This behavior is very much discouraged. you should be using groups with multiple users.

    Dan, in theory, could this be caused by key collisions for newly created items before they get synced?
  • adamsmith
    Why would that be discouraged? I don't see how using a group would make a difference here - it's 3 computers using one library either way (and that should work using a group or a single account).
  • dstillman
    edited April 12, 2013
    Why would that be discouraged? I don't see how using a group would make a difference here
    Yeah, it's not discouraged.
    Dan, in theory, could this be caused by key collisions for newly created items before they get synced?
    No. The client can't create duplicate keys, and if they synced there'd be a conflict.

    We've seen this before due to errors with the note editor, but not in a while.
  • dstillman
    I'm not sure at what point of restarting Firefox/Zotero along the way that I ran the report. Should I run another one?
    Yes, thanks.
  • rsa
    Report ID: 1743711523
  • dstillman
    Still nothing. If you can easily reproduce this after restarting Firefox, can you provide a Debug ID from Firefox startup through the error occurring, using the "Enabled after restart" debug output option?

    Also, are you sure this is happening on all computers, or is it happening on some computers and then syncing to the others? You should be able to tell based on the title it shows for the note in the middle pane before you click on it. If you click and it shows different content from the title in the middle pane, that's a problem.
  • rsa
    Debug ID is D791776746.

    Is it possible that one of the problems may be that many of the notes have the same title/first line? I can't tell simply by the title if it is unique, only when I click on it. I'm not sure about syncing and the computers, but we've been checking our own work to see what was happening, so for different notes, and we all noticed it.
  • dstillman
    You're getting a TinyMCE-related error, but not one we've seen before:
    [JavaScript Error: "TypeError: base is undefined" {file: "jar:jar:file:///C:/Users/[...]/AppData/Roaming/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/[...].default/extensions/zotero@chnm.gmu.edu.xpi!/chrome/zotero.jar!/content/zotero/tinymce/tiny_mce.js" line: 712}]
    Have you reproduced this with your other extensions disabled? No one has reported this in a long time, so there's a decent chance that this is related to your setup. And you have one extension, "Updated Ad Blocker for Firefox 11+", that comes with a pretty ominous warning on its addons.mozilla.org page ("it may interfere with other add-ons that you have installed").
  • rsa
    I disabled all extensions except for Zotero. Seemed to be fine, but then when I got to the fifth or so note, it highlighted and wouldn't open. When I clicked on it again, it opened the previous note I'd looked at, and put that note with the new item. Some notes are just fine, with their data, and in the correct place.
  • dstillman
    Could you see if this happens in Zotero Standalone? By default that will share your existing data directory the first time you run it, so it's easy to check. It'd be good to eliminate Firefox as a variable.
  • rsa
    Thank you for all your help! Off to try that now.
  • rsa
    Sadly, it is also happening in Zotero Standalone.
  • dstillman
    Hmm. Is there anything odd about these notes? Are they imported from somewhere or created within Zotero? Can you get it to happen with simple notes with no formatting that you create?

    Does it only happen with notes with the same title? (That certainly shouldn't matter.)
  • rsa
    They are all created within Zotero, and most of them have no formatting, though some do as the info is sometimes cut and pasted from other places. Mostly I've been seeing it happen with notes with no formatting. It happens both with notes with the same title and with different titles. I noticed this mostly because I've been trying to create better titles so I can tell where the notes really belong when they transfer parent items, and one wrote over another with the new title.
  • mcmcentire
    I am having the same problem with the child notes in Zotero Stand Alone on a Mac. I attach them to a journal, write notes and it spontaneous overwrites or spontaneously alters the format.

    Very frustrating. I really want them work but with the way things are I need to find a new method to take notes.
  • dstillman
    mcmcentire: Can you provide a Report ID as well? I'd like to see if you're getting the same error as rsa.

    I haven't been able to reproduce this, or even to trigger the line of code that's failing for rsa.
  • mcmcentire
    After the overwriting occurs the "Report Error" under the preferences is gray (indicating there is no report ID, correct?). So, unfortunately I can't pass along a report ID.

    I am using Zotero version 4.0.5 in Zotero Standalone on a Mac Airbook. Is there any other information that would useful to help identify the issue?

    Thanks for trying...
  • dstillman
    How easy is it to reproduce after a Zotero restart? It's likely that, once it occurs, it'll keep happening for that Zotero session, but if it doesn't always happen immediately after a Zotero restart, our best hope for figuring this out may be for you to determine what specific steps you can take (if any) to reliably reproduce this.
  • mcmcentire
    I think it may occur when I underline the first word/title of the note. If I open a childnote, and type "Notes" underlined and then return down to take notes it seems to happen more frequently. When the overwriting occurs my cursor goes back up to this underlined title "Notes." I have tried a few notes without that underlining and no title and it doesn't seem to be occurring. At least not thus far...
  • mcmcentire
    Scratch that. It still happens, but perhaps less often?
  • dstillman
    Out of curiosity, have you added images to any of your notes?
  • mcmcentire
    No, I haven't added any images to the notes. However you are correct in that once the overwriting starts occurring during a session it seems to start occurring more and more frequently. So I have started closing Zotero completely when this happens, reopening it and continuing with note taking until the overwriting starts happening again with enough frequency to be really annoying and then repeating the process.
  • rsa
    The comment about the frequency of instances is also true for me. It starts out not happening (maybe first 3 or 4 notes I look at), and then once it starts, it won't stop.
This discussion has been closed.