Word bibliography does not update after modifying reference in Zotero

iramathe
I am using Zotero with the Word plugin and most everything works fine. However, if I modify certain citations in Zotero, then "refresh" in the Word plugin, the bibliography does not refresh those citations. Some citations obey updates correctly, while others ignore them. Good and bad references are scattered throughout the document and I don't see a pattern.

For the citations that don't update, if I attempt to add another reference to the same citation, I am presented with two versions in the dropdown menu: one under "Cited", matching the outdated citation, and another under "My Library" that is up-to-date. It seems as though Zotero has lost the information that the citation in the document corresponds to the citation in Zotero.

I can fix this by deleting evey reference to the broken citation, refreshing to remove the citation from the bibliography, then adding it back. To fix the whole document, however, this is not a desirable solution.

Is there any way to fix the broken citations? Does someone know what bug/fragility might have caused this problem, so I can avoid it?

I use macOS 10.14.6, Word 16.46, Zotero 5.0.96.1
  • adomasven
    This happens when you delete cited items from your library and re-add them. There is no way to restore those links other than by manually relinking such items.
  • iramathe
    @adomasven Thank you for the suggestion. I have not deleted any items from this Zotero library; I have only edited title fields to correct import errors.

    When you write "manually relink," do you mean the "delete all instances and re-add" process I described above, or something different?
  • dstillman
    From your description, this would be from deleting items. If you think it's not, toggle Word field codes for one of the affected items and let us know the zotero.org URL it shows.

    If these are deleted items, you'd have to reinsert them all from the current versions in your library, yes. (You don't have to Refresh in between, but you do have to select from your library rather than from the Cited section.)
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