Citation keys are no longer generated upon import

AVolker
I have encountered an issue since yesterday where the citation key field stays empty when I import a new paper (both when I import via the browser extention as well as drag and uploading a pdf file). I am using BBT and both BTT and Zotero have the most recent updates.

This is a problem for me as when I export my library to a BibTeX document, I can't cite any of the papers as there is no citation key. All the papers imported before yesterday have kept their citation keys.

When selecting one of the papers without a citation key and then going to Edit > Setting > Better BibTeX does show what the citation key should be, but it seems to not properly fill int he citation key field (see image)

https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u12264362/ylslbu40qog6qtw9wty5.png


Has anyone else encountered this issue and/or does anyone know of a way to fix this?
  • kypria
    Yes! I can see that the correct citation is created in the Citation Key Field but it will not use that citation when exporting the PDF. My workflow with Zotero + Better BibTex + Obsidian not longer works. Better BibTex creates the correct citation but when I link the PDF file to Obsidian it will only use the Zotero File name created by Zotero.
  • Tyttikatariina
    I am encountering the same issue and came here to see if there were any fixes.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    For problems with a plugin, you'll need to contact the plugin developer.
  • emilianoeheyns
    But I am only tangentially involved with the obsidian integration. I know they use some stuff in BBT but I don't know exactly what.

    Problems with BBT itself (such as citekey generation) should be reported on github. Please don't omit a debug log.
  • alairnok
    Had the same problem appear suddenly today. A quick workaround was the manual key generation: right-click on item > Better BibTeX > (Re)Generate BibTeX key.
    After changing some BBT settings back and forth plus relaunching Zotero a few times, the auto-generation started working again. I can't tell you exactly what solved it. The issue seems known and fixed now: https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-better-bibtex/issues/3428
    It's worth checking for a BBT update: Tools > Plugins > gear icon near Manage Your Plugins > Check for Updates.
  • lukasthielmann
    I have the same problem on bibtex import (no plugins involved)
  • adamsmith
    edited 7 days ago
    Zotero has never imported citation keys without a plugin, so there is no version of this thread 'without plugins.' If you want any sort of advanced citation key handling (including import), you'll want to use BetterBibTeX
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    (But whether Zotero should preserve citation keys now that it has a Citation Key field is an open question. We never did because 1) Zotero isn't a BibTeX manager and 2) there's wasn't a field for it until recently. Now that we do have a field, we could preserve it, and we already do export from the field. What we don't have is any sort of features for managing/regenerating keys, nor do we have any handling of duplicate keys, so you could easily end up with duplicate keys and produce an invalid BibTeX file on export. But that's probably not a sufficient argument against preserving data that's in the file…)
  • emilianoeheyns
    I'm doing performance work to make having BBT running less heavy.
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