Zotero unlinks/gives modification error for ANYTHING that comes after citation

martinbphd
edited February 13, 2023
Hi All,
Thanks to everyone who maintains this project. I am a big fan, however, at this end stage of my PhD am having to consider jumping ship (which will cost me days if not weeks.

Problem: ANY edit, punctuation, etc that is edited/adjusted next to a citation results either in UNLINKING or "Modified" errors.

This started happening AGAIN after the latyest Zotero update.

Software:
I have now had this happen in Word, Libre Office and Now Google docs. (I switched to each b/c of it.) Everything seemed fine in GD's until the latest upgrade.

Symptoms:
at any random point, for no reason whatsoever, Zotero will refresh and start giving me dozens of "link modified errors".

This applies to anything that was edited directly after a citation.

If I don't leave a # space after Zotero citations - it happens.

Example:

This is my sample sentence (Haynes, 2017) .

edited to:

This is my sample sentence (Haynes, 2017).

-edited by proofreader to simply delete the incorrect space before the period/full stop = 'modification error.'

-Nothing within the citation is touched
-Nothing with the citation is moved
-it will have been refreshed dozens of time before, with no issue
-it happens if you edit anything adjacent in any way, wexcept to add a space.


notes:
-I have all the latest versions
-I have plenty of disk space and ram
-I am not running anything new./fancy conflicting extension


A Zotero developer mentioned to me that this was supposed to have been corrected ages ago?

please help before I have to spend a week or more moving to another platform.

Thanks!

PS. I there any way to attach screen shots here? would make this easier. thanks.



  • adamsmith
    What's you main word processor? This has frequently been an issue in LibreOffice, but I don't believe we have ever had any reports from either Google docs or Word.

    A couple of thoughts:
    edited by proofreader to simply delete the incorrect space before the period/full stop = 'modification error.'
    What/who is 'proofreader' here? If this is a person, which word processor are they using? If you're working on the project in different word processors (which I'd honestly try to avoid in the final stages of a major thesis), how are you transferring the document between them? Are you/they using track changes?

    Also, if you're literally at the proofing stage of the thesis and have other people involved, it may be a good idea to create the bibliography, refresh citations, save a copy of the document, and then unlink citations. Obviously Zotero works for collaborative writing, but other people *can* break things.
  • martinbphd
    edited February 13, 2023
    Hi Adam, we've chatted before. Thanks.

    Main/only WP: Google Docs
    (I moved from word (which is awful for long texts) to Libre. Both had this and other issues. Begrudgingly, I took the leap finally to GDocs. So far, it is infitinately faster, more efficient and it just works, and concentrates the corrections and comments from my four advisors).

    Proofreader:
    I share my docs with a professional proofreader (highly recommend thephdproofreaders.com = excellent service, robust seminars and help materials - tell them I sent ya). I do not swap between WP's at all at this stage!

    note - on your comment - 'other people': I did notice the forum post that if the shared person does not have the Zotero plugin, it 'can' lead to citations getting unlinked. Hence, I only share a copy of the file anyway. (I make all my own edits, no rattling through 'accept' buttons).

    We chatted abotu this when I was back on Libre - and I just decided to take the leap. Perhaps an anomaly, but I gasped when I had it happen on a copy (thankfully) of my main doc today in Google Docs.

    Zotero *can* be slow when making an initial citation in GDocs. I accept this instead of all the other bugs with the other software...

    any ideas = big thanks!

  • adamsmith
    Are you using the standard google docs integration or version 2 (which you would have had to enable in the Connector preferences).
    Might be worth trying to switch versions.
  • martinbphd
    edited February 15, 2023
    Hi @adamsmith thanks for that.

    So I activated the v2, and now it seems faster -

    Under the old version it gave me a link of the (DOZENS!) of unlinked citations, with a list under a pull down of unlinked citations after a refresh

    Now I don;t even get the list up there...

    It looks like I am going to have to just do a 'space' - citation - "space" like I was in Libreoffice...which was maddening.

    why would this start out of the blue you think? I've been using Gdocs successfully for months now!

    thanks :)
Sign In or Register to comment.