Problem with \volcite and variants from biblatex after MikTeX update (biblatex 3.15)

Question

After my latest MikTeX update (November 2020) I have witnessed several issues when compiling files that compiled before the update. These were mostly related to the biblatex or the babel packages. I have been able to sort some of them, but the following MWE won't compile on my Windows 10 system. (Please note the comment inside the document environment.)

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{biblatex}

\begin{filecontents}{bibtest.bib}
  @MvBook{Theory,
    author = {Someone},
    title = {Theory},
    volumes = {2},
  }
\end{filecontents}

\addbibresource{bibtest.bib}

\begin{document}

  \volcite{1}[11]{Theory}
  % If the optional argument is removed, the file compiles.  
  %\volcite{1}{Theory}

\end{document}

More precisely, the first compilation works and it is after running Biber and compiling for the second time that it fails. In my case, it gets stuck while loading the file english.lbx from biblatex. How can this issue be solved?

Answer 1

Update

This was a bug (https://github.com/plk/biblatex/issues/1039) in biblatex 3.15 that was resolved in the version 3.16 (released 2020-12-31). It was caused by using field format aliases too eagerly, which lead to an infinite loop.

Update your TeX system to get biblatex v3.16 and a matching Biber version.

---

Old answer

While you wait for the release of version 3.16 you can fix the issue by providing the appropriate definition for the field format volcitepages in the preamble

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{biblatex}
\DeclareFieldFormat{volcitepages}{\mkpageprefix[pagination][\mknormrange]{#1}}

\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\begin{document}
  \volcite{1}[11]{knuth:ct}
\end{document}