Documents already cited create a second entry in the bibliography

Maybe this is a rookie question, since I'm new, but I often have to cite documents more than once in a document, and I can't find a way to do it right.
I use a standard author-date system (Chicago) in Word for Mac.
Let's say that I cited a paper once. If I try to cite it again, and I type its name into the popup box, the paper will pop up as "cited document", but I won't be able to click on it. I will see the document also below, under "My library", and I can click on that one. But if I do, it creates a new entry in the bibliography, so that now I end up having a redundant bibliography.
Am I meant to not create a citation field if I cite a document for the second time? This seems complicated, because I need to keep track of what I cited, and because when I create a single citation field with multiple items I won't be able to add previously cited documents.
What should I do? Thank you
  • You should be able to click on the item under Cited Items. What do you mean when you say you cannot?

    The reason an item would appear twice in the bibliography would be if you selected two different copies of the item (eg, duplicates in your library, copies in two different group libraries, or an orphaned item not connected to your library and a copy in your library). If you did, you should go through your document and replace the citations all with one version.
  • Thanks for letting me know that I should be able to click on it, so at least I know it's a bug, not a feature of the software. I messed around with options and details, and after restarting the laptop I don't have the issue anymore... but after working on the document a bit, it reappears. This means that I have to restart every now and then if I want to cite a document twice. Maybe it is an issue due to the fact that the fact that I just migrated from Mendeley: I'm using the beta, and I'm working on a document where some citations were created with Mendeley.
  • I’m still not following what exactly the issue is. What do you mean you can’t click on it? What exactly happens?

    Is this only happening for the Mendeley-inserted citations?
  • I mean that if I click on it, nothing happens. It is as if the mouse click has no effect. Usually, if you click on the desired entry (citation) from the popup menu, you select it, the popup menu closes, and you see the surname and the date in the bar. If I click, nothing happens intead. That's what I mean by "can't click".
    To answer to your second question: no, it happens for any citation.
  • Can you provide a Report ID after this occurs?

    I don't believe anyone else has ever reported this, though generally you'd want to just use the up/down arrows and Return/Enter on your keyboard to select items, since you're already typing to perform the search.
  • edited April 5, 2021
    Here's the Report ID: 142621015

    I checked and the issue occurs also if I try to select the entry with keyboard commands. I cannot interact with the "cited" elements in any way whatsoever (sometimes)
  • This should now be fixed in the latest Zotero beta. You can update via Help → Check for Updates. Thanks for reporting.

    (Be sure to include a Report ID in your initial posts for faster fixes — that's all we needed here to see the issue.)
  • Cheers! I will
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