Google docs "internal error" 500

hmark
edited 20 days ago
I'm using the Zotero connector plugin (5.0.176) in Firefox (141.0, Ubuntu) and Zotero desktop (7.0.22), and I'm getting this error whenever I try to work with an existing citation in a google doc:

"500: Google Docs request failed.

{
"error": {
"code": 500,
"message": "Internal error encountered.",
"status": "INTERNAL"
}

I've been working in this doc for months with no issues until today. It mostly lets me add new citations in this doc, and if I open a new google doc I can add and edit with citations there; but if I close and reopen the file, the errors start popping up when I try to edit citations. I was using v6 of the desktop app and updated this morning in case it was a compatibility thing, but that didn't help. Any ideas on what might be happening here?

I also submitted a report through the firefox plugin -
Report ID: 1316251799

edit: now I also am occasionally getting "0: Google Docs request failed." errors as well
  • dstillman
    edited 19 days ago
    Can you provide a Debug ID (different from a Report ID) from the Zotero Connector for reproducing this?
  • adomasven
    @hmark for the record, you are not actually seeing these in any error dialogs that Zotero is showing right? You just see a message that there was an error updating your document, with a link to troubleshooting instructions? Could you provide a Debug ID from Zotero as well (not just the Connector)?
  • hmark
    edited 19 days ago
    I just submitted the debug log - D1981818990 for zotero and D1665282979 for the connector. I'll attach a screen shot of the dialog that pops up. Thanks for taking a look!

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u1238888/ps8pueovtpsiv32gt0ef.png
  • dstillman
    edited 17 days ago
    OK, thanks. There's a bug in Google Docs that can be triggered in some documents when using a new, faster integration method, and while we have a workaround for most operations, it looks like we're missing the workaround when editing existing citations. We'll have a fix within a few days.

    In the meantime, you'll need to delete and recreate the citation. Sorry for the inconvenience.
  • hmark
    That may be a related problem, but after some more messing around I think this might also have to do with tabbed google docs. I unlinked and copied the document, re-added all the citations, and was able to make it work - until I added a second tab, at which point the errors returned. Doing all of that again, but with only one tab, it's working just fine.

    Honestly tabbed docs was not a feature I particularly wanted when google introduced it, and I think my solution will just be to not use it for the forseeable future. It's convenient but not as convenient as having Zotero working :) I can imagine that it's a complicated thing to deal with in the backend.
  • dstillman
    edited 17 days ago
    The 500 "Internal error encountered" error when you try to edit an existing citation returned after you added a second tab, or a different error? There have been some issues with tabbed documents, but those are likely unrelated.

    Can you reproduce this in a new, empty document? If so, can you provide the exact steps to do so?

    We've been trying to get Google to fix the 500 error here for years, and having exact steps to reproduce it would be very helpful in that regard.
  • dstillman
    edited 15 days ago
    @hmark: Please try Zotero Connector 5.0.177.
  • hmark
    Connector 5.0.177 seems to have fixed most of what I was seeing! I can now edit citations in all the docs I was previously working in, in the first tab. It doesn't like having citations in a second tab, so I submitted a debug log for that in case you're interested for future updates (D565427727) but it's a different error message - I can't reproduce the 500 error at this point. I'll be quite happy just working in a single-tab document going forward.

    Thank you for looking into this, I really appreciate it!
  • adomasven
    The Debug ID doesn't have an interaction logged with any document. Could you produce a Debug ID from the connector instead for the tab that fails?
  • hmark
    Well, I do have auto-updates for the plugin, so I'm now on 5.0.178 and it's behaving a little differently once again - it seems like it just unlinked the citations in the tab that was previously throwing errors! Connector debug ID is D1072600344 for that.
  • dstillman
    Can you reproduce that? In a new document or with a newly inserted citation? The point at which it shows you that message isn't necessarily — and usually isn't — the point at which the unlinking happened. If you copied or moved citations while the integration was otherwise failing in that document, that could have unlinked the citations.
  • hmark
    Fortunately for me, I haven't found a way to reproduce it. I now have two clean, working documents (instead of one document with tabs) and everything seems normal. I don't have the timestamps to say if it was 177 or 178, but one of those two definitely helped :)
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