Zotero fails to preserve citations during text movement in Google Docs

ArtemSokolov
It appears that Zotero unlinks citations when a paragraph of text is moved to another place in the document. Here's a full reproducible example:

1. Start a new Google Doc.
2. Write two paragraphs. Insert a single Zotero citation in each.
3. Insert a bibliography at the bottom of the document. It will contain two references.
4. Cut the first paragraph. Paste it after the second one.
5. Do Zotero -> Refresh from the menu. The citation that was moved during the cut-paste operation will now be unlinked, and the bibliography will contain a single reference only.

An example Doc can be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RL4IVKAxnzCTJhgKw0q7ThgHy5T8hLnE_N0DueQgsMY/edit?usp=sharing

Try making a copy, cutting the first paragraph, pasting it after the second and hitting Zotero -> Refresh.

I think this is a major problem. Moving paragraphs around is standard practice during draft revision. The fact that citations become unlinked means that the numbering quickly goes stale and citations point to wrong articles.
  • adomasven
    Could you submit a Report ID from the Zotero Connector?
  • adomasven
    Yeah, so I can see the problem in the example document you have provided, but I cannot reproduce it myself with Google Chrome on Ubuntu and Nature style. Are you sure the steps above reproduce the problem consistently for you?
  • ArtemSokolov
    Hi adomasven,

    I can consistently reproduce it on my Ubuntu machine. I just restarted Zotero, made a fresh Google Doc, followed the steps above and was able to reproduce the issue. The corresponding report ID is 1823982412.

    However, I also tried this on my MacOS machine and could not reproduce the issue. One thing I noticed different was that when the paragraph is pasted, it triggers a Zotero update. This does not seem to happen in my Ubuntu system. The report ID for the MacOS run is 44052342.

    I haven't tried this on Windows yet, but I can check tonight when I get home.

    -Artem
  • adomasven
    @ArtemSokolov Whatever is causing the issue happens during citation insertion. Once the citation is broken it won't paste correctly regardless of platform. Are you using Chrome or Firefox? You submitted a Report ID from the Zotero client, could you do it for the Connector (the page has instructions for both).
  • ArtemSokolov
    @adomasven My apologies. Here's a Zotero Connector report: 1884758796

    The report is from a fresh Chrome session where I started a new Google doc and reproduced the issue.

    I noticed that there were no errors reported, so I also did a debug output log, which is submitted as D92068889. The matching Google Doc that is referenced in debug output can be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YrreBHbYnxAcqaA10gxVuA1AyRs6_XGwYor_KrYHb_0/edit?usp=sharing
  • adomasven
    edited December 11, 2019
    Could you see if you can reproduce the problem with Firefox? Afterwards could you install the Connector Beta into Firefox and see whether that solves the problem?

    EDIT: I also just realized that another extension either in Google Docs or Chrome might be a source of this, so testing with all other extensions disabled is worth a shot.

    Basically, we already have a fix in the Firefox beta, but we have been seeing this pop up occasionally and inexplicably for other users since adding the current method of citation copying. Yours is a first reliable reproduction and we would like to know what was the cause in the first place.
  • ArtemSokolov
    @adomasven I had some troubles getting Zotero extension to work in Firefox; it kept failing to communicate with the application (even through the ping test worked). Eventually, creating a new Firefox profile did the trick. Google Doc integration worked without problems, and I was not able to reproduce the issue. (Firefox 71.0, Zotero connector 5.0.60).

    I then tried creating a new Chrome profile and reinstalling Zotero connector. There are no other extensions, but the Google Doc issue still persists.

    So, currently my situation is as follows:

    Firefox on Ubuntu: works
    Chrome on MacOS: works
    Chrome on Ubuntu (profile sync'd with MacOS): fails
    Chrome on Ubuntu (brand new profile): fails

    I'm traveling for the next few days, but when I'm back in town I'll try re-installing Chrome to see if that's the issue. Please let me know if you have other ideas I should try.

    Thanks for all your help!
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