BetterBibTex: Citekeys not syncing

HR234
Hello, I have the following problem:
The pinned citekeys are not syncing across libraries:

they are present in the extra field on one side, but they do not sync to the other side to the extra field (and are for that reason not used as the citekey).

This contradicts the idea of a pinned citekey. The BetterBibTex GitHub support told me it was a Zotero syncing problem.
Thank you in advance

  • fcheslack
    https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/changes_not_syncing
  • HR234
    I do not have a problem with syncing between multiple devices or zotero.org. The syncing is not working on one device within the desktop app
  • adamsmith
    What do you mean by "one device within the desktop app"?
  • HR234
    The article refers to "multiple devices and/or zotero.org". This is not my problem. I use Zotero only on my Win-PC, but when I am changing the citekey for one entry, the citekey is not syncing for the entry in other libraries (refresh citekey).
    BetterbibTex told me this is a zotero syncing problem since the citekey does not appear in the _extra_ field, even though it is pinned. Thank you
  • adamsmith
    By multiple libraries you mean multiple groups? Items in groups are entirely separate, so that was never going to work; no idea why you think it would. No other changes are applied to items copied to groups, either.

    If not, could you maybe step back and explain in a bit more detail? I'm having a hard time understanding what's going on here at all. E.g. the way Zotero users the word "sync" it always refers to syncing across devices, so that may have caused some confusion here (and it's why fcheslack pointed you to the kb entry for that type of sync).
  • HR234
    so the main library is not the central database for entries I copy to group libraries? then I got wrong information by the BBT support. And I do not understand the purpose of a pinned citekey then if I have to renew it for every entry in a new library.
  • adamsmith
    edited May 11, 2023
    I still don't quite understand what's going on since you're very sparse on details -- if you copy an item with a pinned citekey to a group, the citekey should definitely stick. If that's not happening, we can troubleshoot that.

    What was never going to happen (and what I don't think the word "pinned" suggests in any way) is that once you have copied to a group library, changing the citekey in one library will update it in multiple libraries (and BBT "support" -- it's one developer of a massive and free app -- may have just misunderstood. As I said, your use of terminology is non-standard from a Zotero perspective).

    Edit: but also, make sure that you're not confusing "group" and "collection" -- the main library *is* the central database for all entries in all *collections*
  • emilianoeheyns
    That was it -- I could have delved deeper, but I was told the extra field did not sync with or without BBT, and I took "sync" at face value.
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