references disappear from document

megansmith
I have used Zotero with libreoffice for a while. The bibliography has disappeared from one document when I reopen it, and the entirety of the references have disappeard from the latest document I have written - despite having carefully saved them as I went.
Any idea how I can get them back??
  • adamsmith
    Could you specify "disappear"? There is no text anymore at all where a reference was? In other words, assume that none of us has ever seen something like this and give us a step-by-step.
  • megansmith
    2 different things.
    In 1 document - all the citations remain in the text but the bibliography that inserted at the end is no longer there when I re-open the document having saved it. If I try to reinsert the bibliography, I get a message saying that there are no citations (and the text of the citations in the document is no longer recognized as citations which I can edit by Zotero).
    In 2nd document - having put in citations and bibliography, saved, and restarted computer - all the references have entirely disappeared from the document (as if I'd never entered them).

    both these have happened more than once
  • adamsmith
    The 2nd issue we have never seen and it's quite puzzling. I don't see how references could just disappear, that would require LibreOffice to just delete massive parts of a document. You're also, best I can tell, the only person to ever report this.

    For the 1st issue, can you think of anything unusual you have done? The most common way this would happen would be by saving the document in a format that doesn't support reference marks—that'd include .doc, .docx, .rtf, or, e.g. opening it in google doc and saving it from there (in any format).
  • lisamoses
    Hello,
    I think that the same thing happened to me. I created a word document with reference marks and a bibliography in it a few weeks ago. When I re-opened it today, my superscript marks are there, but they are not linked to any citations and the bibliography is gone. I looked at all versions I saved in various places and they are gone from all.

    Based on your answer above, I think the problem is that I saved the documents as .doc as I didn't know that I needed to save in a different format. Is that what probably happened? If so, is there any way to recover things, or do I have to reinsert my citations and start over? (and save in a different format)?
    Thanks, Lisa
  • adamsmith
    depends -- what you describe would only happen if you switch between LibreOffice and Word. If that's the case, it's almost certainly what happened. Also, if you opened the document in google docs somewhere along the way.
    If you were in Word all along, this is far less likely -- you'd have to have saved it in a different format (like .rtf or so) quite specifically, which isn't particularly likely. Both .doc and .docx save the Fields that Zotero inserts in Word documents for citations.
  • topolina
    I have the same problem, I think. I inserted citations to my thesis, saved the document (Word 2010) and closed it. When I reopened it later and tried to add bibliography, it was empty! My previously added citations were no longer linked to Zotero, they were just like normal text. Then I tried to add new citations and bibliography and only the new citations appeared. So does it really mean I have to re-insert ALL the citations again and in one go, just before handing over my thesis to have a correct bibliography? Any help would be much appreciated! I really want it to work properly. Thanks!
  • adamsmith
    edited April 5, 2015
    It sounds like they're gone, yes. In that case, yes, you have to insert them manually. Same as I say above in terms of how this happens: It's extremely like for a document that has only been handled in Word. It can happen easily when working with Word and any other word processor.

    If this does happen with Word only, we'd really like to know how. So if anyone is able to reliably replicate this, that'd be helpful. Also, anything unusual you have done with your documents would be helpful. As I say in my first post, the Zotero citation information is written into the Word file in a standard way that's used by other Word functions (such as cross references, e.g.) too, so with normal use there really shouldn't be a way for them to just disappear.
  • eqmaidao
    I just experienced a similar problem. I am on a PC laptop using Word 2013. I was editing my thesis using the track changes function in Word. Then as I inserted new citations in the document, a bubble would pop up b/c of the track changes which said "Unknown Field Code Changed". I assumed that was b/c of the track changes that this was happening. At this point I still had the reference list at the end. Then I accepted all changes including these Unknown Field Code Changed box that says "Unknown field code change" in the reference. My citations are still in the document and they are still linked to the proper citations in My Library when I click on edit citation. But when I click on edit Bibliography, it says I have to put in a Bibliography first. I don't know how to get my bibliography back. It's kind unnerving since my thesis is due soon and I have to go back to a previous version to input all the changes again. Does anyone have a solution for getting my bibliography back? Thanks!
  • adamsmith
    Delete the bibliography and insert it again. As long as the citations are linked, I wouldn't worry all that much.
  • nemo8130
    edited November 15, 2015
    Hi !

    This seems a well posed problem. I am using zotero for the first time and in a libraoffice platform (on Ubuntu 14.2)

    This happened more than once with no clue to me what so ever ! I inserted the references and the corresponding bibliography at the end of the text.

    Then I closed it (after saving), re-opened and did a text modification, clicked on the cross button. It asked me for the preferred format which had chosen as 'Microsoft .docx'.

    Then again when I reopened it, I could not retrieve any of the links. The citations (say Wallner et al., and the corresponding previously inserted bibliography) were merely texts without links.

    How do I save the document so that the citations and bibligraphies remain linked for further edit ?

    If you have any hint, kindly let me know.


    - sankar
  • adamsmith
    edited November 15, 2015
    See my first answer:

    For the 1st issue, can you think of anything unusual you have done? The most common way this would happen would be by saving the document in a format that doesn't support reference marks—that'd include .doc, .docx, .rtf, or, e.g. opening it in google doc and saving it from there (in any format).
    It sounds like you saved as .docx, which will do exactly what you observed with default settings. If you need to save as .docx (which I'd generally advise against--LibreOffice's .docx isn't great), you'll need to use Bookmarks, which can be selected under Set Document Preferences.
    Preferably, use .odt.
  • nemo8130
    It seem to work with .odt

    But I am having to incorporate the references one more time.

    Tried with just saving a copy of the original document in .odt.

    That did not work.

    Probably that's how it is.

    Thanks adamsmith.
  • adamsmith
    yes, that's right. Saving the document even once in a format other than .odt will remove all the fields that connect references to Zotero. Sorry about the trouble.
  • paulakamilag
    Finally, what's the best format to save a document in case we have to edit it both in word and libreoffice? Do you recommend always to save it in .doc and to avoid .docx?
  • adamsmith
    I'd use .doc. And make sure to use "Bookmarks" in the Document Settings of the Zotero word processor add-on.
  • jayarc
    I'm in the middle of doing a 9-month thesis. References worked fine until today. I opened my thesis document (MS Word) only to find that the references, all of them, have disappeared, evaporated, which is to say that where they were they are no longer. When I try to rebuild the references file I get the message "There are no sources in the document". This is odd, because the references ARE in the document. This whole episode is very worrying. I'd be grateful for assistance. Many thanks.
  • bwiernik
    If you right click on one of the citations, is there an option to “Update field”? If not, then the citations appear to have been converted to plain text. See here for potential causes and solutions:
    https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_troubleshooting#citations_converted_to_plain_text

    If you have additional questions, please start a new thread.
  • adamsmith
    but I'm a little unclear about what exactly disappeared means here -- if actual text that used to exist in a document is gone (rather than just the link to Zotero) something else is going on. Zotero cannot cause this.
  • jayarc
    OK. if Zotero cannot cause this I'll have to take a different route to solve the problem.
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