Err: Zotero field code corresponding to this citation which tells Zotero which item in your library

Report ID: 667509688

I keep getting the error: "The Zotero field code corresponding to this citation, which tells Zotero which item in your library this citation represents, has been corrupted. Would you like to reselect the item?

Clicking "No" will delete the field codes for citations containing this item, preserving the citation text but potentially deleting it from your bibliography.

Yes, No, Cancel" (doesn't make a difference which I select)

This error occured on a Dell Latitude E6400 after trying to write the document in LibreOffice on my new System76 Gazelle Professional, Ubuntu laptop. Zotero kept messing up on the S76, (Zotero 4.0.6 on both machines) and I had to recreate the bibliography 5 times as it would lose its connection with the citations and images were repeatedly deleted or lost if they had been copied online. After several trying hours, and only 3 paragraphs accomplished plus opening my thesis in LibreOffice only to find the formatting horribly ruined, I gave up and went back to my PC to use
Word, where both documents had been created. This time, I got the above error in Word, and could not select ANY reference. I also note, that the document lost several images from experimental runs I had done 2-weeks prior to getting the new S76 laptop and LibreOffice- so I don't think it can be said I was doing something wrong with inserting images in LibreOffice. i.e. it is deleting new and old images.

For LibreOffice and Word, each initial Zotero citation insertion gave me an option to select 'Book Mark' to keep the document compatible between LibreOffice and Word. I selected it since the document would be shared among several... if it ever gets written. I now seem to have lost the ability to use Zotero to generate references from citations on the fly in Word which has always worked extremely well before today. I could never get Zotero working right in LibreOffice today- my first day on it. I am really disappointed this thing may have corrupted my file, and images. A great deal of time went into generating it, and the images. My bad for believing the hype on the compatability. I don't know what else may be broken yet.

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I since went to Zotero 4.0.6 to check my preferences and make sure it was ok, and there was nothing amiss there (now I am on the Dell PC
which uses MS Office). Oddly, it stated the plug-in for Word was not
installed, but I have been using it for years on that machine. I attempted several times to
install it, and got the 'Zotero Word for Windows Integration' error, "Installation
could not be completed because an error occurred. Please be sure that
Microsoft Word is closed (it is), and then restart Firefox (I did), a couple
of times, including restart... no install was possible- I get the error.
  • Do you not have any back-ups of the file pre-LO? That really does seem like the best course of action here.
  • I've already regenerated it from back ups. Problem is, I had been working for a good bit of time in this session- so there was a new content.
  • I am now getting the install error every time I open Firefox.
  • right, but couldn't you just copy paste that part (minus, potentially Zotero citations?)
    I'm not really sure where to start troubleshooting here - as the "bookmarks" setting in the Word plugins says, they're easier to corrupt and that's clearly what happened.
    I'm not a big believer in carrying complex document from Word to LibreOffice (or vice versa) Zotero or not. When I co-author with word users I keep figures, tables etc. in separate files because that type of stuff always gets messed up.
  • For the install problem, create an error report ID after triggering that problem
    http://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_bugs#provide_a_report_id
    Simon will have to look at that.
  • I've just gone back to Word, and started over... essentially what you are suggesting. It is just not what you want to do. At some point this is supposed to work correctly. I do that too, that's not the point. I am still getting errors, though if I wait several minutes, I am able to put a citation in. Zotero is not working correctly on either system. I am just trying to work around it, and keeping my fingers crossed... and saving and putting things into separate files. Repeatedly having to start over is a drag.
  • I am curious what your definition of a complex document is. Having images and tables?
  • There's really two separate issues here:
    1. Zotero not working correctly on either system. That's not normal & shouldn't happen, but you don't really describe what's happening, so I don't have any input on that. We're happy to help if you have specific errors that come up. Many people write book-length manuscripts with Zotero, so this is very much not a general issue.
    Because you do mention images - note that Zotero citations copied into image captions are a known cause for breaking documents. Zotero won't let you insert citations in captions, but can't prevent you from pasting them there.

    2. Transfer between Word and LibreOffice not working smoothly - yes, in general this should work, but in my experience even without Zotero citations it doesn't, and yes, figures, tables, and images count as "complex" for that purpose. I wish that weren't the case, but unfortunately that's the the sad state of WYSWYG word-processing.
    Again, the Zotero citations shouldn't break, of course. This could be related to the errors you're experiencing under 1.
  • Thanks... good points. I am hitting the learning curve on LO. The upside... (I hope) it can only get better from here...
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