The video you sent us is showing you starting Zotero and insert one citation. The point that I have repeatedly explained above, is that first insert after restarting Zotero is going to be slow. The question is whether subsequent citation inserts or edits are slow in the same document without restarting Zotero.
If they are, Zotero is working correctly, and I'm not sure why that should be a problem for you. If it is not, we need you to produce a Debug ID and a video for inserting subsequent citations in the document after Zotero restart.
Yesterday you told me: “The debug log doesn’t look right, it’s still taking too long, and it’s retrieving all fields from the document, which it should not do. Could you create a screen recording where you perform the request above, and create another Debug ID while doing so?” So I sent you a screen recording with the Debug ID.
You’ve since criticised that attempt as incorrect, so I have repeated the process — this time using a second insertion rather than the first. The second insertion is noticeably faster than before (previously it made no difference whether it was the first, second, or hundredth insertion, each would take a couple of minutes). So there is some significant improvement.
I have created a new screen recording and am emailing it to you now. Debug ID: D1004062209.
Please confirm whether the issue you noted yesterday — “The debug log doesn’t look right, it’s still taking too long, and it’s retrieving all fields from the document, which it should not do” — is still occurring on this second insertion?
I would also appreciate it if you could review the earlier Debug ID (D180847405, first insertion), as those still take a long time.
This is a general issue with Word for Mac unfortunately. After restarting Zotero, when you cite in a new document for the first time with "automatically update citations" disabled, the initial cite will take a while, but subsequent ones should be relatively fast until you restart Zotero, certainly within seconds, not minutes, for that particular document.
Your latest submitted debug ID is what I was asking for the whole time, and it's showing Zotero behaving correctly, and as described in my initial response.
Yes, we are aware of, and cannot change the fact that after restarting Zotero the initial attempt to insert a citation into the document is slow when automatic citation updates are disabled. All subsequent insertions until restarting Zotero will be fast. Other operations, such as refreshing or adding/editing bibliography will also be slow, but you should only run them when needed, e.g. before submitting the document.
Given all of the above, I was troubleshooting this problem with you on the assumption, and your claim, that every citation insertion into the document is slow. Given your latest debug log, this is clearly not the case. As explained, this is not a bug, and should allow you to work with your large document comfortably.
As explained, other options are using LibreOffice or Word on Windows, if possible. Google Docs is not an option and is prone to a slowness due to technical reasons out of our hands.
If you observe Zotero behaving incorrectly, particularly, inserting citations becoming slow after the initial expected slow insertion, we can help you troubleshoot that. Otherwise, there is not a bug here, nor something that should make citing with Zotero with your current setup unworkable.
1. Yesterday you wrote in response to a debug ID I submitted: “The debug log doesn’t look right and is still taking too long, and retrieving all fields from the document, which it should not do.” That was a clear acknowledgement of a problem. It is inconsistent to now claim there was never an issue.
2. As I have explained repeatedly, until today every single citation insertion was slow — not just the first one after restart. This has been the case for months, costing me up to 90 minutes a day simply waiting for references to insert. And multiple times per day of seeing a pop up window saying there was an error with Zotero. I must have seen that message hundreds of times by now.
Given those facts, it is not reasonable to dismiss this as “not a bug” or suggest that my reports were mistaken.
Right now I’m simply relieved that the second insertion is finally working properly for the first time in months. I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time trying to resolve this, and it’s clear that yet another installation yesterday has improved matters considerably. I’ll continue to monitor the situation.
1. Yesterday you wrote in response to a debug ID I submitted: “The debug log doesn’t look right and is still taking too long, and retrieving all fields from the document, which it should not do.” That was a clear acknowledgement of a problem. It is inconsistent to now claim there was never an issue.
That is only because you followed my instructions improperly, which I assumed you did. Your Debug ID is consistent with adding a citation to the document right after restarting Zotero, which is also what your screen recording showed and was not what was asked for:
Restart Zotero, insert a single citation into your document, and make sure it's finished inserting (progress bar is no longer open as one of Zotero windows), then produce a Debug ID for attempting to insert a second citation.
2. As I have explained repeatedly, until today every single citation insertion was slow — not just the first one after restart. This has been the case for months, costing me up to 90 minutes a day simply waiting for references to insert. And multiple times per day of seeing a pop up window saying there was an error with Zotero. I must have seen that message hundreds of times by now.
Given that we have not updated Zotero since you've reported the issue, and haven't updated the related code for multiple months, that just cannot be the case. Either you didn't have automatic citation updates disabled in Zotero, or didn't try inserting multiple citations in sequence without pressing something, like opening document preferences, or pressing refresh, which triggers a slow update, and also as described on Zotero 7 doesn't produce a progress indicator.
I've tested the document that you have sent us with both Zotero 7 and Zotero Beta, and it was acting correctly, so whatever slowness you saw in your document was due to user error.
As for errors occuring while performing other operations - they may happen, and are unfortunately part of the instability of Word for Mac. Usually repeating the failed operation, e.g. Refresh or Add/Edit Bibliography works on the second try. Sometimes restarting your computer or closing other busy applications may help.
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If they are, Zotero is working correctly, and I'm not sure why that should be a problem for you. If it is not, we need you to produce a Debug ID and a video for inserting subsequent citations in the document after Zotero restart.
You’ve since criticised that attempt as incorrect, so I have repeated the process — this time using a second insertion rather than the first. The second insertion is noticeably faster than before (previously it made no difference whether it was the first, second, or hundredth insertion, each would take a couple of minutes). So there is some significant improvement.
I have created a new screen recording and am emailing it to you now. Debug ID: D1004062209.
Please confirm whether the issue you noted yesterday — “The debug log doesn’t look right, it’s still taking too long, and it’s retrieving all fields from the document, which it should not do” — is still occurring on this second insertion?
I would also appreciate it if you could review the earlier Debug ID (D180847405, first insertion), as those still take a long time.
Yes, we are aware of, and cannot change the fact that after restarting Zotero the initial attempt to insert a citation into the document is slow when automatic citation updates are disabled. All subsequent insertions until restarting Zotero will be fast. Other operations, such as refreshing or adding/editing bibliography will also be slow, but you should only run them when needed, e.g. before submitting the document.
Given all of the above, I was troubleshooting this problem with you on the assumption, and your claim, that every citation insertion into the document is slow. Given your latest debug log, this is clearly not the case. As explained, this is not a bug, and should allow you to work with your large document comfortably.
As explained, other options are using LibreOffice or Word on Windows, if possible. Google Docs is not an option and is prone to a slowness due to technical reasons out of our hands.
If you observe Zotero behaving incorrectly, particularly, inserting citations becoming slow after the initial expected slow insertion, we can help you troubleshoot that. Otherwise, there is not a bug here, nor something that should make citing with Zotero with your current setup unworkable.
1. Yesterday you wrote in response to a debug ID I submitted: “The debug log doesn’t look right and is still taking too long, and retrieving all fields from the document, which it should not do.” That was a clear acknowledgement of a problem. It is inconsistent to now claim there was never an issue.
2. As I have explained repeatedly, until today every single citation insertion was slow — not just the first one after restart. This has been the case for months, costing me up to 90 minutes a day simply waiting for references to insert. And multiple times per day of seeing a pop up window saying there was an error with Zotero. I must have seen that message hundreds of times by now.
Given those facts, it is not reasonable to dismiss this as “not a bug” or suggest that my reports were mistaken.
Right now I’m simply relieved that the second insertion is finally working properly for the first time in months. I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time trying to resolve this, and it’s clear that yet another installation yesterday has improved matters considerably. I’ll continue to monitor the situation.
Given that we have not updated Zotero since you've reported the issue, and haven't updated the related code for multiple months, that just cannot be the case. Either you didn't have automatic citation updates disabled in Zotero, or didn't try inserting multiple citations in sequence without pressing something, like opening document preferences, or pressing refresh, which triggers a slow update, and also as described on Zotero 7 doesn't produce a progress indicator.
I've tested the document that you have sent us with both Zotero 7 and Zotero Beta, and it was acting correctly, so whatever slowness you saw in your document was due to user error.
As for errors occuring while performing other operations - they may happen, and are unfortunately part of the instability of Word for Mac. Usually repeating the failed operation, e.g. Refresh or Add/Edit Bibliography works on the second try. Sometimes restarting your computer or closing other busy applications may help.