generating two references
I am having a problem with my reference list and citations. I switched from Mendeley to Zotero and when placing my citation within my paper they are generating two references. For example, when I use the citation (Bass and Riggio, 2006), it comes up as (Bass and Riggio, 2006a) and (Bass and Riggio, 2006b). They are the same references and then the reference list populates it with the two references. How do I eliminate one of the references and citations?
Figure out which of the items is connected to your Zotero library (eg, place your cursor in the citation, open the Add/Edit Citation window, click on the blue bubble, and see if there is a Show in My Library button). Then, replace all of the citations with the other suffix with the correct citation (eg, by copy paste), then click the Refresh button in the Zotero tab.
1) Insert the reference from Zotero and check whether that becomes Arnold 2015a or Arnold 2015b
2) Then in the document, go to all the non-Zotero cases (e.g. if Zotero inserts 2015b, you'd find all 2015a), delete them, and re-insert them with the Zotero one.
it seems like there are two citations. When I added the "b" and deleted the "a" it prompted me to choose the modification and when I did it should have deleted the "a" but it didn't.
Start by just searching for 2015a or 2015b (whichever you are trying to remove) and ensure that they are all gone.
Better to merge them and then see if they disappear. If not, delete the one made via Mendeley from your document(!) and then reinsert.
In my case, this happened because I had one source in multiple Zotero libraries. I somehow made one citation refer to one library while the other referred to another library. This resulted in two version (e.g. 2020a and 2020b).
To check this, press ALT+F9 to show markdown mode in your document. Watch out not to mess around with it. Find one instance of each citation (e.g. 2020a and 2020b) and check for the 'uri'. If you find them, open them in your browser (it's a link). It will show you where exactly each source is located in your Zotero database.
Once you identify which of the two citations refers to the wrong database, close markdown mode (ALT+F9) and delete that citation(s). Make sure it's gone from your document. Then, in the Zotero ribbon menu, click 'Refresh'. If all went well, there should be no duplicate versions anymore and the years are updated (e.g. just '2020').
Now you can add back your deleted citations, but when you do so, be sure to select not under the 'recently cited' heading but from the heading of the correct library instead. This way you know for sure you're getting the right one.
Check again and don't forget to save your document. You might want to save a copy before doing this.