Biber does not find "too long" Jabref references

Question

I'm writing my thesis using MikTeK and Winedt 9 for Windows. I use the documentclass{report} and then I have a "masterfile" with a preamble, where I use the option \input to load specific chapters of the thesis. I use JabRef and Biber to handle the references. I have encountered a curious problem:

Biber is unable to find a specific entry in my .bib file. At first, it seems to be related to the fact that the entry contains a line which is too long in terms of characters. Biber does not "find" the reference and renders the command in the regular boldfaced form. Typically, this happens if there are many different editors of a book, such that the "editor" line in JabRef becomes very long.

Even more curiously, Biber is able to find the same entry if I write a new file such as a regular documentclass{article}. I load the exact same .bib file in the preamble, and I use the exact same key to cite it in the document.

Any ideas?

Here is a probably too verbose MWE:

\documentclass[12]{report}
\setcounter{tocdepth}{2}
\usepackage{layout}
\setlength{\voffset}{-0.75in}
\setlength{\headsep}{5pt}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage{authblk}
\usepackage [T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[backend=biber, style=authoryear-comp]{biblatex}
\usepackage{xyling}
\usepackage[super]{nth}
\usepackage{xspace}
\usepackage{cgloss4e}
\usepackage{abstract}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{multirow}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage{xr}
\usepackage{gb4e}


\addbibresource{ref.bib}

\title{XXX}
\author{YYY}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}

blablabla \cite{LabelleHirschbuhler2005} NB! 

\end{document}

This is the offending entry in the ref.bib file. Its BibTeX source reads like this:

@InBook{LabelleHirschbuhler2005,
  chapter =   {Changes in clausal organization and the position of clitics in Old French},
  pages =     {60-71},
  title =     {Grammaticalization and Parametric Change},
  publisher = {Oxford University Press},
  year =      {2005},
  author =    {Marie Labelle and Paul Hirschbühler},
  editor =    {Monserrat, Batllori and Maria-Lluísa, Hernanz and Carme, Picallo and Francesc, Roca},
  address =   {Oxford},
}

Answer 1

This is an incompatibility between gb4e and xyling or more specifically the dvips driver of xy. The problem can be reproduced with

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{gb4e}
\usepackage{xyling}

\begin{document}
Lorem
\end{document}

Or by replacing \usepackage{xyling} with \usepackage[color,all,dvips]{xy} (xyling internally loads xy with those options).

gb4e changes the definitions of ^ and _ so you can use sub- and superscripts outside of math mode as well. This interferes with xy's dvips driver using the ^^-notation.

You can disable this behaviour with \noautomath

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{gb4e}
\noautomath
\usepackage{xyling}

\begin{document}
Lorem
\end{document}

See also Can't compile XeLaTeX document with biblatex and gb4e together and gb4e breaks math subscripts in \caption

If you want to use _ and ^ without switching to math mode, you can re-enable the function after \begin{document} with \automath

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{gb4e}
\noautomath
\usepackage{xyling}

\begin{document}\automath
Lorem_a
\end{document}