footnotes not refreshing

I have the rather known problem of zotero-citations not refreshing after I hit the refresh button in word.

Changing to another citation style and changing back doesn't work.

When I add a new citation quoting the same source it shows correctly.

When I compare the two citations I note that they have different uris but they lead to the same source in the library.

What to do now?

I'm rather new to zotero so any kind of help would be appreciated.
  • I have already and none of this is the case.

  • In that case are you sure the citation that is not updating is still linked?

  • edited April 28, 2023
    Can you confirm that the citations are actually active citations? (see above link again)

    Are you using endnotes, by any chance?
  • The citations are still linked, they are even shown in the add/edit field they are just not updating.

    I am using footnotes, not endnotes.

    Thanks for your help!
  • I don't really know what to say to you here. Did you try removing the citation and reinserting again? It just sounds like your cited items are no longer linked to your Zotero library items, or you have duplicates in your library, i.e. what is explained in the first link I posted.
  • Yes, removing and reinserting does the trick but it`s a book with thousands of citations so i was hoping not to have to do that.
    i took care of duplications and always merged and never deleted them. so it can't be the reason.
    And as I said, the citation also must be still linked because the uris lead to the same item in the library. Or am I getting something wrong?

    Thanks.

  • What do you mean by "the uris lead to the same item in the library"? Can you provide examples?
  • when i hit alt+f9 and the fieldcodes are shown - among them this:
    "uris":["http://zotero.org/groups/4728610/items/5DMJB9G2"

    as i got it the last 8numbers/letters combination is the uri that identifies your citation in the library (got that right)

    there are the uris 5DMJB9G2 and 8GUHPY75 - they are linked to the same item in the zotero library but are cited differently in the document.
  • update: the uris lead me to the same item in my zotero app on the notebook but in the web-library one of them leads to error: page not found.
  • edited April 28, 2023
    Post-duplicate-merge items have only one ID/URI. The cited items may have multiple URIs, but only one of them will work if you paste it into the search field in Zotero. If you have cited items with URIs where none of them point to an existing Zotero item, then they will not update.

    Generally, I cannot reproduce this locally. If you can find a way to make duplicate items cited in a document post-merge not correspond to a single item, we'd like to know the steps for that.

    EDIT: Also, if both of the URIs lead to an item in Zotero, it is likely that they lead to different items, likely duplicates?
  • the uris lead me to the same item in my zotero app on the notebook
    @nath42: I still don't know what you mean by this. URIs like that are internal identifiers and don't "lead" you anywhere. What exactly are you doing?

    8GUHPY75 doesn't appear to be an item that has ever existed in that group library, so I don't know what that is.
  • the item in question ist not a post-duplicate merge item. i just said that deleting duplicates generally can't be the reason for the citations not refreshing because i never deleted a single item in the library, only merged them when necessary.

    i was referring to a citation that was already in the document when i got it (i'm proofreading a book). then i hit the refresh button in word knowing that the citation should look different because i changed the title of the item. and then nothing happened. when i reinsert the citation it shows it in the way it's supposed to.
    but obviously i don't want to reinsert every citation..

    refreshing worked with some of the citations though. but i can't figure out why.
  • @dstillman: I mean when i copy the uri out of the word document into the zotero library search field, in both cases the same item is shown.

  • i was referring to a citation that was already in the document when i got it (i'm proofreading a book)
    Wait, are you saying it's a citation inserted by someone else? Then it would have a URI for a different library, and Zotero would just be using metadata embedded in the document. This is why we're asking you what the URIs are.
    I mean when i copy the uri out of the word document into the zotero library search field, in both cases the same item is shown.
    Copy…what, exactly? You can't search by URI in the Zotero search field.
  • but I did.
    for example
    I put 8GUHPY75 and the item ("Leistungsrechte") is shown in the zotery library

    I put K34VAKHF and another item ("Art 42 GrCH") ist shown in the zotero library

    ...

  • edited April 28, 2023
    @dstillman:

    yes citation inserted by someone else, but we are using the same shared group library...
  • edited April 28, 2023
    OK, well those aren't URIs. Those are item keys. That's why we were asking for specifics.

    8GUHPY75 isn't an item that exists in any of your libraries online, but it's possible that's an item you added locally and haven't yet synced.

    In any case, if you edit the 8GUHPY75 item in Zotero, changes should be reflected in the document unless you've made manual edits to the citation, in which case Zotero should prompt you to reset the item if you click it and click Add/Edit Citation. Make sure you're actually editing that item, not some other item.

    Note that you can also click the citation bubble and click the "Open in…" button to open the item in Zotero. You don't have to search by the item key.
  • edited April 28, 2023
    Ok, thanks.

    But I don't know if that solves my problem. Because even when I open the zotero-"add/edit" field in the document an even if i edit the citation (like pagenumbers) it doesn't give the citation out correctly - only when i'm reinserting the citation. ..
  • edited April 28, 2023
    We really need specific examples in order to help you. You can also take screenshots, upload them somewhere (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.), and provide a link here. But we're just having a lot of trouble understanding what exactly you're doing and what's happening.
  • also interesting: "open in..." button is not working.
  • Not working meaning what? What happens?

    Can you provide a Debug ID for clicking that button?
  • not working means nothing is happening at all.

    i got this Debug ID D1789526109

    in the Debug output it said: Zotero.Libraries.getName() is deprecated. Use Zotero.Library.prototype.name instead

    when i was clicking on the citation in the add/edit field

    does that provide you with the necessary information?
  • There's no indication of any errors in this Debug ID. Are you sure the item is not being selected? Zotero library window may not get focused when you press the button, but the cited item should be selected.
  • ok, got it and it's working.

    but I still don't get how to solve my initial question. with the citations not updating the zotero add/edit field also doesn't show me the "open in..." button..
    So I guess that brings me back to the first statement. for some reason, the citations are not linked to the library and i have to reinsert manually...?

  • Yes they are and yes you will have to reinsert them. Possible that the author had the item both in a group library and in their personal library and cited the item from the personal library in some places, or anything else as described in the citations not linked knowledge base page.
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