LibreOffice: Bibligraphy does not update?

Bauer.KD
edited March 5, 2024

Status 2024/03/05. Issue is being tracked as https://github.com/zotero/zotero-libreoffice-integration/issues/76. See this comment.

A workaround exists: Create the bibliography at the bottom of the document and cut/paste it to the wanted location, see this comment.

Original Post. As of Libreoffice Writer 7.6 (on OpenSuse 15.3) and Zotero 6.30, I am observing, that bibliographies don't get updated, when making changes in the document, such as

- Adding new citations
- Changing the citation style

Demonstration: https://youtu.be/gI9BvUVy_Fs

Does anyone else experience this problem? Any solutions, I could try?


  • adomasven
    I cannot reproduce this. Does it happen if you put the bibliography at the end of the document at the start? Does it happen with the APA style or only some specific citation style?
  • Bauer.KD
    edited November 6, 2023
    Does it happen if you put the bibliography at the end of the document at the start? − adomasven
    Not sure what you mean by "at the start" here. Adding a bibliography is only possible after adding citations, so I can't do it?
    Does it happen with the APA style or only some specific citation style? − adomasven
    Independent of a specific style, as far as I can tell.
    As of Libreoffice Writer 7.6 (on OpenSuse 15.3) [...] − Bauer.KD
    What might be relevant is that I installed LibreOffice 7.6 from the RPM release from www.libreoffice.org/download − because I currently do not get any updates for LibreOffice otherwise. I previously also had some other less important integration issues with that, such as the RPM package lacking icons for use by the Alt+TAB task switcher. JabRef's LibreOffice integration not working at all might also have been related, but I lack a possibility to actually verify that.

    Maybe there is a log file that might indicate a failure of communication between the programs?
  • adomasven
    Sorry, does it occur if you insert the bibliography at the end of the file, instead of at the start? Could you produce a Debug ID from Zotero for inserting a citation, a bibliography, then another citation?
  • Bauer.KD
    When creating an empty document, and inserting the bibliography at the very end of the document, it works. Debug ID is D1052455833 for the workflow:

    1. Insert one citation.
    2. Insert bibliography at end of document.
    3. Insert another citation above.

    I thought I had tried this before, but maybe not?

    Adding the bibliography at the beginning of the document continues to reproduce the issue (Debug ID D1363095153) for the workflow:

    1. Insert two citations into empty document.
    2. Insert bibliography before the document.
    3. Insert more citations. Bibliography does not update.
    4. Change bibliography style. Bibliography does not update.

    I am pretty sure that in the past having the bibliography at or near the beginning of the document used to work.
  • adomasven
    Are you on the latest point release of 7.6? Does it work well with the stable 7.5 version?
  • Bauer.KD
    I tested adding the bibliography at the beginning of a document (same workflow as above, Debug ID D1837046893) with 
    Version: 7.3.6.2 / LibreOffice Community
    Build ID: 30(Build:2)
    CPU threads: 12; OS: Linux 5.3; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
    Locale: de-AT (en_US.UTF8); UI: en-US
    Calc: threaded
    as provided by the repositories of my distribution and got the same result (i.e. no updating of the bibliography). Given that I tried using JabRef for a while in between, it is hard to say exactly when the behavior changes, but it doesn't look like it changed due to the newer LibreOffice version.

    There could be any number of other changes on the system since then though, that are not intentionally related to either LibreOffice or Zotero.
  • kirmaha
    Hello @Bauer.KD

    I experience the exact same issue, and for sometimes now. I'm using :
    - Debian 12 (stable and testing, depending on which computer)
    - LibreOffice 24.2.0.3 Flatpak (flathub)
    - Zotero 6.0.30 unofficial Flatpak (flathub)

    So it's probably neither your distro or the RPM version.
    Do you use Zotero as flatpak too ? Because that might explain communication issues... If you do use Flatpak version, tell me and I'll try how it goes with the official tarball or the community maintained deb package ( https://www.zotero.org/support/installation ).
  • Bauer.KD
    @kirmaha: I am using no flatpaks currently, due to recurring issues with desktop-integration / third-party tool support in the sandboxes. Zotero is installed from a tar-ball in a custom prefix,

      >>> which zotero
      /home/kdbauer/my/prefix/zotero/bin/zotero

    Libreoffice is installed using their release

      LibreOffice_7.6.0_Linux_x86-64_rpm.tar.gz
  • kirmaha
    Thank you for your answer.

    Then it looks like this issue is happening across Linux distributions (OpenSuse 15.3, Debian 12), across LO and Zotero versions and app formats (official tarball for Zotero, rpm for LO, flatpak for both), and across CSL styles (using APA 7th and Vancouver).

    I searched again and I found this topic from 2020 : https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/83966/bibliography-not-updating . I misunderstood what @dstillman said and tought he was pointing issues with Writer styles (he was talking about CSL styles), so I tried using another template than the one I always use when working with Zotero. And guess what: updating bibliography now works!

    So it looks like that - in my case at least - the issue is related to the Writer styles or to the template document I use... Is it the same for you ?

    The main symptom of my issue is:
    1. When you create a bibliography, LO Writer should show a grey border around it to indicate it is a dynamic field.
    2. When generating a broken bibliography, there's a grey border around one empty line, and then - outside of the border - the bibliography appears as regular (static) text. After editing the document, that grey border does not show at all anymore.


    Download document with issue (shared for 180 days):
    https://f2l.retzien.fr/dl/1725094069-42/Zotero_BiblIssue.odt

    Symptom:
    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u9141529/tfffml7vjzbmhshexhgj.png
  • Bauer.KD
    edited March 4, 2024
    @kirmaha When I tried, neither a new empty document nor one using my template worked. The rectangle shown above as empty did not appear with "Field shadings", "Text boundaries" and "Table boundaries" and "Section boundaries" all being enabled.

    For a new document (Ctrl+N), the issue is equally present. Except when putting the bibliography at the end of the text. In that case, the section box appears and contains the bibliography, which will be updated as intended when inserting another citation.

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u4098537/g0yolxabm14xkpm876z7.png
    Workaround / Hint at Cause? The bibliography seems to be functional, if I create it first at the end of the document and then cut and paste it (Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V together with the heading) to the beginning of the document. Done this way, it updates as expected.

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u4098537/hkjdu6ogcollo7gnb0t6.png
    I came across this workaround due to @kirmaha mentioning the formatting highlights in their broken example.

    So it looks like the issue is related to the section boundaries missing, when the bibliography is inserted anywhere other than the end of the file. I.e. the error does not occur when trying to update, but when first inserting the bibliography?

    Attachment Files. See Google Drive. File names as in the screenshots.

  • gwyn-hopkins
    If you insert the bibliography at the start of the document, there is an empty section inserted followed by the list of references as shown above. If you type just one letter in the empty section, the bibliography will then update in the section! You have to then delete the wrongly inserted list.
  • adomasven
    Just to let you know, we are aware of this issue, and will let you know when a fix is available. A number of workarounds are posted here, but the simplest one is to insert the bibliography at the end of the document and move it to the location where you need it.
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