As I have read, one should transition to Biblatex-Biber. Many sites indicating that Biber is far superior to \bibitem's in a latex file or Biblatex backend=BibTex. Thus, I have begun the transition of trying to create better, more efficient, clearer bibliographies. As with 99% of LaTeX users, I really don't understand any of the technical details, I am simply a grateful user of LaTeX. 

Since making the transition to Biber, I have come across several problems. The most important of which is that I can't upload my document to the ArXiv.org, however the file compiles perfectly fine on my system. My endless hours of reading seems to indicate that ArXiv doesn't like to use my .bib file (it doesn't compile with biber, I think). So, instead I upload the .bbl file, however, the ArXiv doesn't know what to do with that either and produces: 

```
Package biblatex Warning: File 'test.bbl' created by
wrong version.

(./test.bbl
! Undefined control sequence.
l.21 \sortlist
{entry}{nty}
? 
! Emergency stop.
l.21 \sortlist
{entry}{nty}
! ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!

```

I have Biber 1.8. What Biber should I be using. ArXiv is using Live Tex 2011 I think. Many places online seem to indicate that I should go back to using \bibitem's or something similar to that. In general I am trying (the best that I can) to not change or edit my bibliography entries, but instead I want to learn how to properly use LaTeX to handle things instead of performing endless manual edits. 

My second issue is how to control the bibliography output. After reading for some time I wrote this for my bibliography code: 

```
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage[style=numeric-comp,firstinits=true,backend=biber,%backref=true
,]{biblatex}
\bibliography{test.bib}
\DeclareFieldFormat[article,book,incollection,phdthesis,misc]{volume}{\mkbibbold{#1}}
\DeclareFieldFormat[article]{publisher}{\textnormal{#1}}
\DeclareFieldFormat[article,book]{title}{\mkbibemph{#1}}

```

However, in a confusing fashion, if I use, 

```
\DeclareFieldFormat[phdthesis]{title}{\mkbibemph{#1}}

```

nothing happens. Biber still defaults to ``quotes'' around my titles and doesn't italics them. An explanation of why this is happening would be nice.