"you must insert a citation before performing this operation" error

sshrey

I am getting this message : "you must insert a citation before performing this operation" when I try to insert bibliography through zotero plugin in Microsoft word (part of office 365).
I checked other forum posts and I don't see the citations I had inserted as active fields as the fields don't turn grey on hovering cursor on it. but i had inserted citations using zotero plugin before. the only change i had done was adding more text from a pdf and editing some text but the citations were never deleted.
also I have followed all instructions from this link- https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/existing_citations_not_detected

dstillman

That page explains it — not really much more we can say. You did something that flattened the citations, and you'll need to restore from a backup of the document.

This does not happen just using Word and saving in the correct format.