When saving: The libary has been modified by another program
See original GitHub issueEdit: JabRef 5.0, 5.1, 5.2, 5.4 till current version (Nov2021) is affected.
If you add a comment please add
- your operating system
- encoding of the document (e.g. ASCII, ANSI, ISO-8859, UTF-16 , …)
- the line-seperators used in the file (lineforward or cariage-return or both or mixed)
- the settings of
Options>Preferences>File– (a) Newline seperator (try LineForward) – (b) Always reformat BIB file on save and export (try disabling) – © Autosave local libraries (try disabling)
Original post
JabRef 5.0-dev--snapshot--2019-04-09--master--0dd091f31
Linux 4.15.0-47-generic amd64
Java 1.8.0_201
Ubuntu 18.04
- I have tested the latest development version from http://builds.jabref.org/master/ and the problem persists
Steps to reproduce the behavior: (same as #4810 )
- open .bib-file
- press “ctrl” & “s”
- Repeat step 2 till Bug appears.
- The message “The library has been modified by another program” appears
- DO NOT accept the changes, otherwise all entries will be doubled (click dismiss)

Log File
Opening: /home/jkalliau/Desktop/Jabrefissue/LargeFile.bib
Can only load style files: Preview
Vorschaustil geändert zu: Vorschau
Speichere Bibliothek...
Opening: /tmp/jabref2591679195168273738.bib
Opening: /home/jkalliau/Desktop/Jabrefissue/LargeFile.bib
Bibliothek gespeichert '/home/jkalliau/Desktop/Jabrefissue/LargeFile.bib'.
Terminal
16:45:54.405 [JavaFX Application Thread] INFO org.jabref.logic.importer.OpenDatabase - Opening: /home/jkalliau/Desktop/Jabrefissue/LargeFile.bib
16:45:54.963 [JavaFX Application Thread] ERROR org.jabref.logic.citationstyle.CitationStyle - Can only load style files: Preview
16:45:55.220 [JavaFX Application Thread] INFO org.jabref.gui.FXDialogService - Vorschaustil geändert zu: Vorschau
16:46:06.495 [JavaFX Application Thread] INFO org.jabref.gui.FXDialogService - Speichere Bibliothek...
16:46:06.524 [pool-3-thread-2] INFO org.jabref.logic.importer.OpenDatabase - Opening: /tmp/jabref2591679195168273738.bib
16:46:06.526 [pool-3-thread-2] INFO org.jabref.logic.importer.OpenDatabase - Opening: /home/jkalliau/Desktop/Jabrefissue/LargeFile.bib
16:46:06.530 [JavaFX Application Thread] INFO org.jabref.gui.FXDialogService - Bibliothek gespeichert '/home/jkalliau/Desktop/Jabrefissue/LargeFile.bib'.
16:53:39.039 [JavaFX Application Thread] INFO org.jabref.gui.FXDialogService - In die Zwischenablage kopiert
Issue Analytics
- State:
- Created 4 years ago
- Reactions:2
- Comments:198 (83 by maintainers)
Top Results From Across the Web
"The library has been modified by another program" - Help
Hi, I am always getting this message after saving the library in Jabref. I have the choice to “Dismiss changes” or “Review changes”....
Read more >why I get an exception "the file has been modified by..." when ...
I'm trying to change a field in the inner xlm of a document in a form library in Sharepoint 2013 but when I...
Read more >Error message when you try to save a changed InfoPath form ...
Describes a behavior that occurs if you try to overwrite a document in a document library without first checking out the original document....
Read more >Determining which objects have changed since last save
Using a SQL View to determine which files, or tables, have changed the last save of the library was made.
Read more >Stop Notepad++ warning if file has been modified from outside
Settings -> Preferences -> MISC. tab. In the section that says File Status Auto Detection make sure that Enable is unchecked.
Read more >
Top Related Medium Post
No results found
Top Related StackOverflow Question
No results found
Troubleshoot Live Code
Lightrun enables developers to add logs, metrics and snapshots to live code - no restarts or redeploys required.
Start Free
Top Related Reddit Thread
No results found
Top Related Hackernoon Post
No results found
Top Related Tweet
No results found
Top Related Dev.to Post
No results found
Top Related Hashnode Post
No results found

JabRef 5.4–2021-12-06–fcae62f Linux 5.13.0-22-generic amd64 Java 16.0.2 JavaFX 17.0.1+1
I’m still seeing this issue, even after deleting these shared backup files from the bibtex shared Dropbox folder and starting JabRef on a clean directory:
Here’s a video of current behaviour:
https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/762246/145068166-ef1a36fd-ba50-4337-98b2-1740817928d7.mp4
Related:
We should remove the
savandbakfeature. This is so 2000. I forced to keep it in 2015, but I regret it now. Version control and backup feature are now common things.Maybe, if we just remove
bakandsav(and directly save tobib), all these change detection issues could be resolved.