Help: Synchronisation fail, nothing works, Splits identical Sources in a&b-Quotations

kg23mobi
edited June 1, 2022
Hi! My girlfriend has a problem with the bachelor thesis. I'll try to summarize this step by step:


1. 100% offline users without an account - so only local data
2. Switching from laptop to PC caused the trouble
3. To do this, she has packed the local data via USB into the PC program. Likewise, the Word document she is working on.
4. Since then - for the following citations, the duplicate database problem occurs and the new citations (from the old sources) are split into a and b variants. Those Sources appear twice as a search suggestion, when I try to add a new citation.
5. Now I should synchronize the databases, but it does not work. I first searched for the TAG. I guess local sources were stored within the Word document and now they are duplicates. But in the zotero library there are no duplicates, I cant see any.
6. Would like to delete one library but I can only find the one in Zotero and no other, maybe try a backup and just try to delete the Zotero-library? I would prefer to merge the individual sources - would be much better. But how?
7. I always thought that a TAG = one library -> but I found many different (?!) TAGs in the quotes. Is this normal? has every quote its own tag?
8. In the meantime, we have synchronized a library online after account registration. But that didn't change anything. even worse - it no longer works at all and whenever she wants to qute she gets redirected to "Troubleshooting Errors in Word Processor Documents" ... I am lost and cant help. I never used Zotero before.

Thanks for your help - I hope Google Translator made a good job here and you can understand the text. Please ask if more information is needed.
  • dstillman
    edited June 1, 2022
    To do this, she has packed the local data via USB into the PC program. Likewise, the Word document she is working on.
    Packed how? It sounds like she did an export/import, which isn't the way to transfer a library between computers and will result in duplicates of all items, which will cause all sorts of problems with the word processor plugin.

    The correct fix would've been to delete the Zotero data directory on the new computer and redo the transfer correctly.

    But if she's now synced both computers, she'd just have the duplicates on both computers. So at this point she can sort by Date Added and delete the entire set of new items and empty the trash.
  • kg23mobi
    Packed - so she had exported (.rdf) data and made an import in the new installed zotero application on the pc. So, yes, she did what you just said. And yes we have all kinds of word-zotero problems here now. Then we synced online and double trouble? we did not check the laptop version since then.

    So I try to find out what you mean first and text you back then.

    Thanks a lot!
  • kg23mobi
    So there are no duplicates btw- means I delete everything there is? Library would be empty then. And do you mean online or in the application?
  • dstillman
    edited June 1, 2022
    Well, if you haven't synced the first computer, you'd still only have the new set of items on the second computer. Add the Date Added column and look at the date. If it's the new set of items, and you've already synced, you'd need to delete them via Zotero rather than deleting the data directory (since they'd already exist online and would otherwise just be pulled down again via sync). You would then transfer the first computer's data one of the two ways.
    And do you mean online or in the application?
    All documentation on this site and everything we say here will always be about the actual Zotero application unless we specifically say we're referring to the web library.
  • kg23mobi
    1. Sorted all data from lately added AND DELETED those from that day of the transfer but left the new ones there.
    2. Then she reactivated the laptop and made a synchronisation. So we have two librarys now with the same name - the old one and the new one. Maybe we can merge them.
    3. Somehow we got duplicates in the app but we could merge them within seconds.

    So we synchronized them and still, nothing works. When we open a fresh word document zotero works with normal functioning, but as soon as we try the original document or a copy of the document there are still multiple choice similar sources AND nothing works - we cant use zotero there. Errors all the time.
  • kg23mobi
    We have evolved an high effort method by copying partwise text or pages in a new word document by using "copy text only" so we get letters and no links. Then she replaces the empty Quotes with Zotero links. This works because the Problem must be linked to the information within the original word document. Somehow word must have remembered the quote-sources...
  • dstillman
    as soon as we try the original document or a copy of the document there are still multiple choice similar sources
    No, the point is to use the original document from before the transfer along with the original library data — then it's just a direct continuation of what you were doing on the original computer. If you use a document you've used with the exported/imported data, you're just going to end up with more problems.

    If you did this properly, you shouldn't have any duplicates in the library and shouldn't see any duplicates in the citation dialog.

    Beyond that, for errors in an existing document, see Troubleshooting Errors in Word Processor Documents. But at this point, given all the things you've done, reinserting all the citations into a flattened document may be the easiest path forward.
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