Upgrade StorageThis item no longer exists in your Zotero database. Do you want to select a substitute item?
I get the above comment for each and every footnote in my dissertation, every time I open it. All the items are in the database, both the database on the computer and the one synced with the server.
I'm using Word 2010, Zotero 2.1.7, and the newest Word plugin.
I've tried a variety of things (saving the document by a different name each and every time, using firefox on a thumb drive, disabling sync) and each time I seem to get the connections between the footnotes and the database to stick for an hour or a day, but they all get lost eventually.
I do work on a variety of computers in my school library, but that shouldn't matter if I'm using zotero and firefox on the same flash drive, or if I'm using the sync server, right?
I am perfectly willing to help zotero find each footnote yet again (what are a couple of hours in the years of writing a dissertation?) if they'll stick.
I'm using Word 2010, Zotero 2.1.7, and the newest Word plugin.
I've tried a variety of things (saving the document by a different name each and every time, using firefox on a thumb drive, disabling sync) and each time I seem to get the connections between the footnotes and the database to stick for an hour or a day, but they all get lost eventually.
I do work on a variety of computers in my school library, but that shouldn't matter if I'm using zotero and firefox on the same flash drive, or if I'm using the sync server, right?
I am perfectly willing to help zotero find each footnote yet again (what are a couple of hours in the years of writing a dissertation?) if they'll stick.
This discussion has been closed.
If the items do not exist, it is probably because you either upgraded from Zotero 1.0 on separate computers or because you have tried to rely on export/import (which does not preserve item IDs: that is what syncing is for)
Also, I'm trying to sync, but the green circle arrow never stops turning. Is that proper or is it a sign of a problem?
Thanks, noksagt.
Syncing can take some time, especially if it is a first-time sync or is a sync of a library that is largely new because you've imported a bunch of items (which, again, zotero treats as completely new items). If you don't see an error message, then yes: things are probably fine.
I open my Word document. I hit zotero refresh. It goes to the first zotero footnote, and reports that the item no longer exists, and after I locate it for zotero, it continues to the second footnote, reports it no longer exists, to each of the hundreds of footnotes. If I locate the first three footnotes and then cancel the rest of the refresh, and then refresh again, it takes me to the fourth footnote, so it remembered the item ID temporarily. Then I close the Word document and reopen it and refresh zotero and it goes back to the first footnote, as if all the item IDs were gone. Even if I keep firefox running while closing and reopening Word, no item IDs remain.
How can I maintain item IDs while closing and reopening Word?
Obviously, IDs usually are maintained permanently.
Dan Stillman: I'm in Word 2007, using fields. Zotero preferences prevent me from choosing the other option of bookmarks (it's greyed out). Right clicking on the reference in the text yields nothing. Right clicking on the footnote yields just Word options for footnotes, nothing about field codes.
I tried a few different codes, but never was able to get a report. just "invalid ID" in my firefox window.
Suddenly, however, I was able to close the document and reopen it, and refresh zotero and it skipped to the third reference, but it still won't create a report for that code in firefox.
3W329SX5
PJASHG23
There are no items with those keys in your database on the server. This doesn't tell us what you have on your computer, but assuming you're fully synced, which you seem to be, that would seem to indicate that the message just means exactly what it says and the items don't exist in your database.
http://zotero.org/users/57564/items/3W329SX5
http://zotero.org/users/57564/items/PJASHG23
Yes, the item code does not exist in the database. The item certainly does.
Winword plugin remembers the wrong code for each item, no matter what I do.
The automated zotero process that brings the codes into line with the items doesn't record the change for the FIRST item until ALL OF THE FOOTNOTES have found proper codes. With over a thousand footnotes, I'd always get stuck somewhere in the middle of that process. That process must be finished before one closes Word, or else not one single code updates itself.
I should have done this weeks ago, but I finally broke the links on a copy of my document, and started deleting footnotes and replacing them manually, and they effectively replaced the codes.
Then I copied a paragraph of the document into a new document, used the zotero automated feature to update ALL the footnotes in that new document, and they seemed to hold, even after closing firefox and word and reopening them.
Interestingly, when I toggle codes, both the old and new codes are there now. Could that be a problem? The first reads: "http://zotero.org/users/57564/items/QD4F46DZ","http://zotero.org/users/57564/items/GU3GMF2C"
I suppose the way to proceed is to copy just a chapter or even a section of a chapter at a time of my document into a new document, fix ALL the footnotes in that portion, (save it individually also), and replace that back into the master document.
Could both old and new codes in the document come to haunt me later?
My problem with syncing perhaps ought to go in another thread. How do I keep my library from doubling every item every time I sync from another computer that I've used before? I've used fifty computers in the library at school, and will use all fifty at some point or another before I'm done.
For future reference for long documents, my process of upgrading one chapter at a time seems effective.