Non-responsive plugin buttons in Word

meierdo2

Hello everyone,

I'm experiencing exactly the issue described here: "Non-responsive plugin buttons in Word".

It's clearly not a problem with Word itself—when Zotero isn’t running, I receive an error message stating that Zotero is not active. However, when both Word (even with a blank document) and Zotero are open, clicking any of the plugin buttons has no effect.

I’ve already reinstalled both the software and the Word add-ins, but the issue remains. I also tested it with Zotero 6—unfortunately, that didn’t make any difference either.

A third-party application might be interfering with the communication between the two programs, but I’ve closed all known security tools without success.

I’ve also looked through several forum threads and tried all the suggested solutions—none of them resolved the issue.

Any further advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

dstillman

Windows: https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_troubleshooting#error_or_non-responsive_plugin_buttons

Mac: https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_troubleshooting#no_response_from_plugin

meierdo2

Hi Dstillman,
Thank you very much. As described above, I have already tested all of this (several times). Do you have any other ideas? Especially for analyzing the cause?
BR,
Dominik

dstillman

Can you say exactly what you tried from the appropriate linked section, in your own words? (We don't even know what OS you're running, so we can't say more without more context.)

meierdo2

Thank you very much. Sure:

- I use Windows 11 Enterprise with Word in Microsoft 365
- I have made sure that the communication between the two applications basically works: If Word is running but Zotero is not, when I click on a button I get the error message "Word could not communicate with Zotero. Please ensure Zotero is running and try again." If I then start Zotero, I no longer get this message - but nothing else happens either. For me, this is a clear sign that it's not Word, but somewhere between the tools or directly with Zotero.

I then proceeded according to the checklist:
- Restart,
- Start Zotero before Word,
- open a completely new document (not an existing file),
- Reinstall the Word plugin (via Zotero and manually),
- Reinstallation of Zotero (version 6 and version 7),
- Applications started as the same user (also as admin),
- Security applications (as described above) temporarily deactivated,
- Ensured that the -no-remote flag is not set.

I need extended help to evaluate the cause. Where can I track the communication between the tools or the behavior of Zotero?

dstillman

How did you reinstall the plugin?

meierdo2

Once manually, by deleting the Zotero.dotm in %AppData%\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP - Restart - and copying it back in from the folder C:\Program Files\Zotero\integration\word-for-windows, and once automatically from the Zotero menu Settings - Cite - Button “Reinstall Microsoft Word Add-in”.

dstillman

Did you restart Word to confirm that the Zotero toolbar was gone before reinstalling? If not, you should do that.

meierdo2

Yes, of course. The toolbar was definitely gone. I followed the instructions exactly: https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_manual_installation

adomasven

Could you restart Word and Zotero and provide a Debug ID from Zotero for clicking a Zotero plugin button in Word?

meierdo2

You are very welcome: D81630329. I have clicked Document Preferences once and Add/Edit Citation once. No reaction.

adomasven

Are you running both applications as normal user or administrator. Are you using a normal user account on your machine? Can you create a new temporary user account on this machine and see if the plugin works there?

meierdo2

Thank you, we were able to solve it. In fact, both applications were not started with the same user.