Cannot add or edit citations (macOS Big Sur + Word + M1 Mac)

2»
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    > We will [update Zotero with native M1 support], but it's going to be a while.

    Out of curiosity, what kind of timescale are we talking? Weeks? Months? Years?
    Probably later next year.

    But we expect this bug to be fixed much sooner by Apple.
  • SDECONCA
    Hello everyone,
    same issue here with the new MacBook Air with M1 and Zotero serving me the frozen red bar for a couple of minutes.
    I cannot resort to any of the temporary solutions offered in the thread (previous word version or rosetta), so I was wondering, any news on the front of fixing the bug/updating Zotero?
    Thank you a lot and happy new year!
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    I cannot resort to any of the temporary solutions offered in the thread (previous word version or rosetta)
    Why not? Those are the only fixes right now.
  • ianbt7
    edited January 7, 2021
    Just found this out right now while working on a proposal. This is not good at all.

    I was able to downgrade to 16.43 and successfully added a citation.

    Thanks for the workaround

  • dstillman Zotero Team
    @ianbt7: 1) This isn't our bug — it's Apple's. 2) There are two trivial workarounds, as explained on our support page.
  • ianbt7
    @dstillman thank you — my apologies— just goes to show how much many of us appreciate the work you all do and when there's a hiccup it's a bit startling. Thanks again.
  • goldsoundz
    I've no idea how to roll back an app if I've downloaded it from the Mac App Store (not even sure it's possible) but I can confirm running Word in Rosetta mode 'fixes' this issue for now...

    Right click Microsoft Word in your Applications folder > Get Info > Check "Open using Rosetta"

    It certainly slows it down but it's fine. Fingers crossed Apple will fix this in Mac OS 11.2 (in beta right now) and we can use the Apple Silicon version again...
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited January 14, 2021
    While we haven't yet tested with Word, based on our testing of the underlying behavior, we believe this is fixed in Big Sur 11.2 Beta 2, now available in public beta.

    If anyone experiencing this is running the Big Sur 11.2 beta (or wants to), please upgrade to 11.2 Beta 2, try running Word without Rosetta, and let us know how it goes.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    Sorry, disregard my previous message. This bug is unfortunately still present in macOS 11.2 Beta 2 — I was testing with 2047 characters rather than the magic 2048. So we're still waiting for Apple to fix this. I'll post again when there are any updates.
  • Anand1986
    Does anyone have a download link for Word 16.43? Can't find it anywhere. I'm running a new M1 mac so I don't have any old versions of Word to revert to an Microsoft don't host download links for old versions.
  • Anand1986
    The Rosetta workaround doesn't seem to work for me either. Running Word 16.45 now.
  • ianbt7
    @dstillman I reverted to 16.43 and have come across two issues. 1) Word keeps automatically updating to the latest version (even with auto updates turned off); 2) 16.43 keeps crashing when I use Zotero.

    This makes it really hard to work on a dissertation where most of the citation work is already in Zotero. This bug could not have come at a worse time.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    The Rosetta workaround doesn't seem to work for me either. Running Word 16.45 now.
    @Anand1986: I don't know what you mean by that, but running Word under Rosetta, either as 16.43 or manually switched, absolutely works.
    This bug could not have come at a worse time.
    @ianbt7: You're misunderstanding this. This macOS bug is unfortunate, but in no way does it prevent proper usage of Zotero. I can't speak to the Word auto-update issue — no one else has reported that — but 16.43 was simply the standard, stable version of Word before 16.44 was released, and it wouldn't crash any more than it did before, so that has nothing to do with this bug. If it's giving you trouble, try 16.42, or use a newer version under Rosetta.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    @Anand1986:
    Does anyone have a download link for Word 16.43?
    It's linked from the support page.
  • ianbt7
    @dstillman Do you have a link or resource on how to obtain and use "Rosetta"? This is the first time I'm hearing of it.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    This is all explained on the support page.

    Rosetta is just macOS's built-in way to run apps for Intel Macs that haven't been updated for Apple Silicon. It's used automatically for Word 16.43 and below, which didn't include Apple Silicon support. For 16.44 and up, you can force them to run under Rosetta and use the bundled code for Intel Macs instead, which avoids this bug.
  • ianbt7
    @dstillman Cool, I'll try that—Thanks for bearing with me
  • SDECONCA
    @dstillman Same as others, my new M1 Macbook simply doesn't have a previous version of word I can resort to. As per Rosetta, for some reason word isn't running on it, I have read that Rosetta is not fully compatible with the M1 so maybe that is the problem.
    I am now trying to use Zotero on my old (9yo) laptop hoping it won't crash, to finish a few footnotes for my PhD. Wish me luck, I hope Apple fixes the bug soon.
    Thank you
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    @SDECONCA: You’re misunderstanding both workarounds here. A download link for Word 16.43 is provided on the support page, and Rosetta is a built-in part of macOS that’s available on every M1 Mac — that’s the whole point of it. Read the support page more carefully to understand how these workarounds work. There’s absolutely no reason to use an older Mac.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    OK, it took some work, but since there's no fix from Apple in sight, we've developed a workaround for this bug that allows Word to be used in native mode. (Basically, Zotero will automatically start an intermediate service in native mode to forward messages between Zotero running under Rosetta and Word running natively.)

    The workaround is available in the latest Zotero beta. If you're using Word on an M1 Mac, you can download that and upgrade to the latest version of Word (or disable "Open using Rosetta" if you're already running 16.44+), and you should no longer get any freezing. If you're still running Word 16.43 or later under Rosetta, Zotero will encourage you to switch Word back to native mode for maximum performance.

    Let us know if you run into any trouble. We'll release this as 5.0.95.2 as soon as we get confirmation that it's working for people.
  • goldsoundz
    @dstillman It works! Back to full speed native mode on my M1 MBP. You're all brilliant, thank you! :)
  • alexmann
    Thanks for this update! :)
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited January 29, 2021
    Zotero 5.0.95.2 is out now with a fix for this bug, so it's again possible to run Word in native mode. You can upgrade via Help → "Check for Updates…".

    If you're still running Word 16.43, you should now upgrade to the latest version of Word.

    If you previously set Word 16.44 or later to open under Rosetta, you should select Word in Finder, go to File → Get Info, uncheck "Open using Rosetta", and restart Word.

    Thanks for your patience, and our apologies for the inconvenience. We'll leave this workaround in place until Apple fixes the underlying bug in macOS.

This is an old discussion that has not been active in a long time. Before commenting here, you should strongly consider starting a new discussion instead. If you think the content of this discussion is still relevant, you can link to it from your new discussion.

This discussion has been closed.