Retrieve MetaData for PDFs Google Scholar Query Limit Reached, no captcha

In creating my library for the first time using the new Zotero Standalone (5.0), I have quite a few PDFs, as many others no doubt have. Mine are unorganized and scattered with no consistent naming conventions, so drag and drop, retrieve metadata for PDFs, and renaming/organizing via Zotfile is the most practical process until I can integrate Zotero into my initial lit reviews using the connectors. I can see from searching the forums that many others run into the problem of "Google Scholar Query Limit Reached" when building their initial libraries this way.

However, I've seen several people post about having a captcha prompt pop up that allows them to continue retrieval by proving they are human, at least for a while, that extends the number of queries. My Zotero has literally never done this; there is no captcha prompt that pops up, ever. I've also seen a post that indicated there was a place users could modify the number and type of searches submitted to Google Scholar this way (such as searching using the filename, which I would choose to disable because a good portion of my files are nonsense random alphanumeric combinations generated by journal publishers, or sometimes just "document (10)", so that's a "wasted" search), but I haven't been able to find if there's a place to do this in the new version. I've tried getting rid of the cookies in Zotero, but that doesn't seem to help.

Is there a way I can ensure the captcha comes up, or a way to modify the number and type of searches submitted to Google Scholar, so I can get through creating my library faster?

Thanks in advance for any assistance, and to all the hard work used to build Zotero itself.
  • I am having the same problem tonight (more than a year later). I saw a post that said Zotero wasn't using Google Scholar any longer and that the discussion thread was closed. Obviously, that is not the case. I would like a fix or workaround as well.
  • I saw a post that said Zotero wasn't using Google Scholar any longer and that the discussion thread was closed. Obviously, that is not the case.
    It is the case — Zotero no longer uses Google Scholar. You're either using the third-party Google Scholar Citations plugin or you've saved many items from the Google Scholar website. You'll need to wait until you're unblocked.
  • I reinstalled Zotero and it fixed the problems. Thanks for the response.
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