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I am switching an existing file on Overleaf from BibTeX to BibLaTeX. I have .bib files in the folder with the file (imported from JabRef) which worked just fine with BibTeX. For some reason, BibLaTeX is not loading them; in other words, it does not recognize any of the bibtex keys cited in the text. My format is:

\addbibresource{filename1.bib,filename2.bib}

Anyone know why this isn't working? I have found people talking about stuff like biber, which I don't really understand. And I can't see how to do that kind of thing in Overleaf. I tried adding [backend=biber] to the package line but that didn't change anything.

Thank you!

P.S. I am switching because I would like to have abbreviated reference lists as described here: Abbreviating number ranges in BibLaTeX

UPDATE:

Following @DavidCarlisle's point, I now have the format:

\addbibresource{filename1.bib}
\addbibresource{filename2.bib}

Surprisingly, the bibtex keys in the text are still not recognized. The error message reads, "Package biblatex Warning: Please (re)run Biber on the file: output and rerun LaTeX afterwards."

I thought I would provide this update, but moewe has kindly helped me solve my end goal (mentioned as P.S. above) in a different way: Abbreviating number ranges in BibTeX

latexbird
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  • if it didn't work you should have an error in the latex log or biber log (both viewable from the log file menu in overleaf) you could post the releavant parts here – David Carlisle May 25 '21 at 20:18
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    Welcome to TeX SX! I think you can add a bib resource only one at a time. – Bernard May 25 '21 at 20:21
  • Thanks @Bernard, I will do that from now on. I'm still having the same issue, though! – latexbird May 25 '21 at 20:52
  • Thanks @DavidCarlisle. You're right, there are some errors down at the bottom (under the 100+ from citations!). Here they are: "Package biblatex Warning: Please (re)run Biber on the file: output and rerun LaTeX afterwards." And: "BibTeX: output.bcf is malformed, last biblatex run probably failed. Deleted output.bbl" – latexbird May 25 '21 at 20:54
  • To clear quite clear, I mean that for each .bib file, you have to use a new \addbibresource. – Bernard May 25 '21 at 20:54
  • @Bernard Thank you. I've decided to just use one bibtex file for now for simplicity, which should cover some of the citations. No improvement on the original error yet! – latexbird May 25 '21 at 20:57
  • use the overleaf "delete cached files" menu option to get rid of the bad bsf file, hopefully a clean one will get made, otherwise an earlier error is at fault – David Carlisle May 25 '21 at 21:02
  • Thanks @DavidCarlisle! The second error is gone now, and the files seem to be loaded because the log points out duplicate entries between the two .bib files. I still have the first error, though, and the citations are still not loading (although the errors are orange instead of red now). – latexbird May 25 '21 at 21:16
  • Unfortunately, we won't be able to say anything more unless you share more details with us. As Bernard says, you can't pass multiple files to \addbibresource, the command accepts only one .bib file name. You can use multiple .bib files if you call \addbibresource multiple times, though: \addbibresource{filename1.bib}\addbibresource{filename2.bib} should work just fine. You mention additional errors that you get, but those can't be diagnosed without more detail. ... – moewe May 26 '21 at 06:11
  • ... BibTeX: output.bcf is malformed errors usually happen if there is a bad error during the LaTeX run that stops compilation before the end of the document. In that case LaTeX should report errors that you should fix. For more helpful hints we'd need to see an example document that reproduces the issue with as little code as possible: https://tex.meta.stackexchange.com/q/228/35864 – moewe May 26 '21 at 06:12
  • Hi moewe, The remaining error is the first one copied above: "Package biblatex Warning: Please (re)run Biber on the file: output and rerun LaTeX afterwards." I no longer need this question answered though, because you helped me get my end result working in BibTeX! https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/598584/abbreviating-number-ranges-in-bibtex Thanks again. – latexbird May 26 '21 at 15:27
  • If you are still stuck and would like someone to look at your Overleaf project, reach out to support@overleaf.com (I'm on the support team). – Dan MacKinnon May 26 '21 at 16:04
  • I voted to close this question as a duplicate of the question that explains how to use \addbibresource for multiple files as that is the part of the question that is answerable and appeared to be the main focus of the initial question. The follow-up problems are not easy to diagnose without more details and since the OP found a different solution it is unlikely that it would be investigated further. – moewe May 31 '21 at 06:41

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