Word plugin has become unresponsive; Zotero running as admin by default?

Recently my Word plugin has stopped responding. The plugin appears in the toolbar, but when I click Add/Edit Citation or Add/Edit Bibliography, nothing happens. Sometimes, after loading for a moment, it looks like a new window is opening on my taskbar, but it goes away in a split second. There's no error message, and nothing in the document changes.

I only started noticing this issue within the last few weeks; I don't know of any updates I've had between the last time it worked and now that might have changed this.

I followed all the suggestions here, as well as uninstalling and reinstalling Zotero itself and the plugin (both automatically and manually): https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_troubleshooting#communication_error_or_non-responsive_plugin_buttons

However, I went to check whether Zotero or Word is running as an administrator. I didn't select Run as Administrator when I opened Zotero, but when I open Task Manager, go to Details and view the Elevated column, Zotero is set to "Yes". That makes me think it's being run as an administrator by default, even though the settings aren't set up that way. I'm on a work computer and don't have permissions to open Word as an administrator as well.

Is there a way to force Zotero to open as *not* an administrator, or any additional issues that might be causing this?

I'm running Word for Microsoft 365 (Version 16.0.13127.20296) on Windows 10, and Zotero 5.0. The documents I'm trying to edit are on OneDrive and already had some references, but I also get the same issue when I create a new blank document saved locally.
  • That's really a Windows issue that we can't help with. Your IT department may be able to help. Zotero should certainly not be run as an administrator.
  • That's what I figured too! I asked our IT group about it today, but they didn't have any information on why that might be happening - it doesn't happen with other apps and it's certainly not a setting they've put in place.

    That makes me think it's some feature of Zotero I've managed to inadvertently activate.

  • No, Zotero is just a standard app. (It's basically just a modified version of Firefox.) It has no way of making itself run as administrator.
  • Hm, okay. Do you have any suggestions for further troubleshooting? Is there some way to change the "Elevated" status of the app, and if not can you suggest any other workaround or will Zotero just be nonfunctional if I can't solve this?
  • Your IT department needs to help you with this. This isn’t a problem in Zotero, and we can’t provide general Windows tech support.
  • Yeah, that's not ture. I've just started having this problem too. And it has nothing to do with my "IT department." I have this problem in the lab at my lab computer and at home on my personal computer where I don't have to deal with any of that nonsense. Clearly, something has been patched in recently, as it was in 2020 for this individual before I started using Zotero. "It's a Windows thing" sounds nice, but I'm only having this problem with Zotero on my Windows machine. This being an issue since 2020 with no attempted fix and now very recently (from the last couple weeks after 4-5 years of use) is pretty sad.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited 2 days ago
    @kmaroney12: Zotero has millions of users, and there are thousands of posts in these forums every year. One post about something 6 years ago and none since is actually a pretty good indication that it is not, in fact, a general issue.

    In any case, it's not even clear what problem you're referring to, so you'll need to take the time to explain, in your own words, what the problem is that you're experiencing, and then we may be able to advise further.

    If all you're saying is that nothing is happening when you click Add/Edit Citation, this thread is likely not relevant, and you just need to follow the steps (likely just the first step) in https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_troubleshooting#error_or_non-responsive_plugin_buttons
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