Previously-used source viewable from Word "Add/Edit Citation" view but not Library

willowsipling · 2026-01-09T00:51:41+00:00

Hi everyone,

I have previously used a source in a Word document (just yesterday), it exists in my document as both an in-text citation and in the bibliography, and in the popup that appears when you press the "Add/Edit Citation" button. However, the item does not appear in my main Zotero library. I've searched the entire library, and the trash and it's not there.

Further, I'm getting the "Some data in My Library could not be downloaded. It may have been saved with a newer version of Zotero" error, which is strange because not much has changed between yesterday versus today. I also have not used any Zotero betas, and I'm on the latest version.

I've made a video walkthrough of the problem: https://www.loom.com/share/a336d6ee34314848a8483e172ce20c7b

I also have a debug ID for when I walked through the problem: D173052869.

Thank you in advance for your help!

poettli · 2026-01-09T00:55:51+00:00

If you have used Zotero 8 beta on another computer and if you have Zotero 7 on this computer, then see https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/504686/#Comment_504686

willowsipling · 2026-01-09T00:59:11+00:00

Hi, @poettli, alas — I just checked the other computer I've used Zotero on, and both it and the computer I used for this video are both on 7.0.30.

adamsmith · 2026-01-09T01:15:41+00:00

For the citation -- the fact that it's available via the Word add-on but not in Zotero is standard. Zotero stores citation metadata in the document so that you can continue citing an item even if you delete it from your library (or if you wrote the document on a different computer and your library isn't fully in sync, which sounds like it may have happened here).

For the sync error, if you don't have a Zotero beta version installed, it's https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/504766/#Comment_504766

willowsipling · 2026-01-09T01:18:50+00:00

Hi @adamsmith, thanks for that comment! Yes, I think this is the problem: "You generally shouldn't end up with these new fields unless you use the beta, but saving directly to the online library from the Zotero Connector is one exception."

I'm not using the beta, but I (often) use that Zotero Connector. According to that, it sounds like moving to the beta is the next step to try to solve this. I'll give that a go and see if it recovers this lost source!

willowsipling · 2026-01-09T01:23:19+00:00

The source has returned!!! Updated to beta, and it's back. Thank you everyone!

dstillman · 2026-01-09T03:22:46+00:00

Just to clarify, though, it isn't "back" — you never had it on this computer. You would've had to have added it to the document on another computer where it existed in your library.

It looks like there's a bug here where changing an item from a Preprint to a Journal Article in Zotero 7 since we added support for the new fields to the online library at the end of December can result in a Journal Article item with a Publisher field in the online library. That would currently only be valid for the Zotero 8 beta, not for Zotero 7, and would therefore result in this error even for people who haven't used the beta anywhere.

This problem will go away as soon as we update Zotero 7 and the mobile apps with support for the new fields. Sorry for the trouble, and thanks for the clear demo video.