Zotero no longer works. Report ID 2135384107

I have MS Word installed, version 2002, Click-to-run version. I also had the latest version of Zotero installed. From one day to another, Zotero stopped working on this particular machine (Dell laptop, running Windows 7) . I have tried the suggested repairs, without success. I have deleted and reinstalled MS Office, Zotero, and the pluggins, without sucess either. If I run the Zotero application on a different machine, with a different Word install (but from the same account, also Click-to-run version), Zotero works fine.

Any suggestions on how to repair the install on the machine with the problem?

Report ID 2135384107
  • What's the problem, exactly? "no longer works" isn't enough info for us to be able to help you.
    [JavaScript Error: "Could not find a running Word instance. [getDocument:\vboxsvr\adomas\zotero\word-for-windows-integration\build\zoterowinwordintegration\document.cpp:142]"]
    If you're getting an error trying to insert a citation in a Word document, are you using a document that's saved to OneDrive? If so, save it to your local disk, or, if the filename has spaces in it, try renaming it so that it doesn't — some people have reported problems with filenames containing spaces, though we haven't been able to reproduce that ourselves.
  • The plugin for MS Word is installed and the Zotero tab is visible in MS Word. When I attempt to enter a citation, a bibliography or click on the "update preferences button," a message that reads

    "Zotero experienced an error updating your document.
    Would you like to view troubleshooting instructions?"

    is displayed.

    After reading and following the troubleshooting instructions, the issue is not resolved. I am using locally saved documents or using a new, from scratch document to attempt to insert a citation of a bibliography.
  • edited October 19, 2020
    Does it work if you run both Zotero and Word as administrator? (Note: this is just a troubleshooting step, you shouldn't normally run either as administrator)
  • If I run both Zotero and MS Word as an administrator I can enter citations and bibliographies. How can I fix this, so I do not have to run either as an admin?
  • If it works with them both as admin, there's a good chance that one of them — probably Word — was running as Administrator before. See here for how to check whether that's the case, and if so adjust your settings.
  • So, it turns out the solution was to run MS Word normally, and to run Zotero in Windows 7 Compatibility mode (it was not necessary to run either program as admin). My computer as a Windows 7 Home Edition OS.
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