zotero crashing when adding citation in Word

yuecq
Hi. When clicking on the Add Citation in Word, zotero did not respond and then crashed. I had to restart it but the issue occurred again when adding citations. There was no error code for sharing because it did not have one. Thanks. (Windows 22H2, 19045.3324; zotero 6.0.27)
  • yuecq
    Furthermore, when I restarted zotero, it showed "Zotero is already running, but is not responding. The old Zotero process must be closed to open a new window."
  • yuecq
    It seemed this problem only happened to Word files saved in OneDrive. I had this problem weeks ago, but it went away suddenly like half hour later
  • yuecq
    Hi. It seems this problem happens randomly, and happened again today. I tried deleting the space in the file name, making a whole copy of that Word doc for debugging, testing it on a local drive instead of in OneDrive, creating a new doc and pasting the content from the original doc. All these could not resolve the issue. But I identified the issue by the step of isolating the problematic citations. This issue happened when I was trying to add a citation to a sentence without any added citations, and also happened to several later sentences. I can modify added citations but just cannot add citations to several sentences. I don't know what may trigger off this issue. It's really annoying. Thanks.
  • dstillman
    As noted on that page, if you can provide a sample document where you can reliably reproduce the issue, you can send it to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread and we can take a look.
  • yuecq
    Thanks for your response. I have sent the sample to you.
  • adomasven
    I've tested your document and am unable to reproduce the crash. What is the full version number of Word that you are running (you can check under File -> Account)? Are you running any proprietary security software? It might be worth trying to create a new Windows user account and try working there.
  • yuecq
    Thanks for your test. Microsoft® Word for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2308 Build 16.0.16731.20310) 64-bit. Only the Windows Security is running. I always can reproduced the error. Even when I created a new Word doc, deleted the whole paragraph, and then re-typed the words, this issue happened again in the same place. Word crahsed and an error window popped out saying "Zotero experienced an error updating your document". No matter where I saved that doc, the error always exists.
  • yuecq
    This happened to both my personal laptop and the Uni's device. They have the same Word version. I used different accounts for the two devices. So I think creating a third account might not be helpful. Thanks
  • yuecq
    I have reproduced the error and got the debug ID D1662481860. Thanks
  • yuecq
    I just tested again. When I removed all Word-edited equations from that paragraph, the issue went away. It seemed long equations triggered off this issue for that paragragh. The equation was like c1*K + c2*K^2. Then, I chose another paragraph without long equations, and added the two long equations to it in different sentences. Then I added a citation after the first equation, which worked well but took longer time to activate the zotero window. Then I wanted to added another citation after the previous citation in another sentence, the issue occurred. Then I removed the long equations from the new paragraph, the issue went away. So I think long equations edited via Word equation editor led to this issue when adding two or more citations in that paragragh, under the Word I am using. Thanks.
  • adomasven
    Can you produce a document with a long equation that causes the crash every time and send it to support@zotero.org? We will try and report this to Microsoft.
  • yuecq
    Thanks for your response. Actually I was able to reproduce the issue every time using the sample I sent to you already. However, you were unable to reproduce it. And just like last time in Sept, it seems this issue has gone away suddenly and temporarily on this morning. Since I have identified the possible factor that might trigger off the issue, I will be more cautious to avoid it. Thanks for your help and time.
  • adomasven
    The document you sent us does not include any equations. If this starts happening for you again and you can consistently make it crash, especially in a new document by following some precise steps (like inserting equations), please post about it.
  • yuecq
    Thanks. I will post it in the future if I can reproduce this issue consistently.
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