Cannot add or edit citations (macOS Big Sur + Word + M1 Mac)
Hi,
after the latest Word-Update (now: 16.44) I cannot add or edit citations anymore.
Whenever I click the button (no matter if I am currently within an existing citation or if I am trying to add a new one), the Zotero Popup-Window appears, I can also pick my paper , but when I hit "Enter", the Popup turns all red and nothing happens.
What I have already tried:
- Restart Computer
- Trying another document
- Trying a blank document
- Trying to cite another paper
- Reinstall Word + Zotero + Connector
- Install Zotero Beta
My current workaround is to use a virtual machine with Windows 10 with the same document. Everything works as usual the, but that's not a permanent solution.
after the latest Word-Update (now: 16.44) I cannot add or edit citations anymore.
Whenever I click the button (no matter if I am currently within an existing citation or if I am trying to add a new one), the Zotero Popup-Window appears, I can also pick my paper , but when I hit "Enter", the Popup turns all red and nothing happens.
What I have already tried:
- Restart Computer
- Trying another document
- Trying a blank document
- Trying to cite another paper
- Reinstall Word + Zotero + Connector
- Install Zotero Beta
My current workaround is to use a virtual machine with Windows 10 with the same document. Everything works as usual the, but that's not a permanent solution.
This discussion has been closed.
1507589440
Debug-ID:
D749774788
I found another workaround for me. As the problem came up after the Word-Update 16.44, I used my time machine backup to go back to version 16.43, switched to the regular zotero version (instead of the beta version) and everything works fine again. Maybe it’s slightly slower than before, but maybe it’s just my opinion.
The Zotero progress bar didn't even come up. The moment I hit the "Enter" button, the Zotero popup-window turned red and nothing happened.
The only way to get Zotero work again was either wait until the Word-popup came up or to shut down Zotero via the macOS-Tool "Aktivitätsanzeige". Zotero won't let me close it, I just received the macOS "waiting icon" (the spinning cycle).
Yes, macOS is up to date (Big Sur).
As I mentioned - After "downgrading" MS Word to version 16.43 everything works fine again. So maybe there has been changes in Word for using fields.
Also, maybe it's important, that I'm using a MacBook with the new M1-Chip instead of an Intel-Version.
So for me I can work with the Downgrade-Workaround for now.
But is there anything I can do to help you with this, as you receive many of these errors lately?
Right now I‘m posting from my phone, so I can‘t try it myself, but you could try to Download the older version of the office package (for me, Version 16.43 works fine again) .
https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/officeupdates/update-history-office-for-mac#release-history-for-office-for-mac
Some of my citations will add properly, but others will not. I have isolated the citations which appear to be problematic and have deleted the Zotero files and recreated them and the problem persists.
Oddly, I experienced this first when dealing with a group of citations. I can add citation A fine alone, citation B fine alone, citation A and B together fine. I can also add citation C fine alone, but if I try to add the full group, ABC, the crash occurs.
I have also submitted an error report, 348751807
I also have the exact same problem tobiaskl describes here. I also use one of the new M1 Macbooks and just upgraded to the 16.44 version of MS Word, which now runs natively on the M1 Macs and not via Rosetta2. I wonder if this may cause the problem. Unfortunately I don't have a Time Machine Backup and found no workaround yet.
We're investigating this to see whether we can fix it on our end or if it needs to be fixed by Microsoft or Apple. We'll have an update soon.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-office-for-mac-with-rosetta-and-apple-silicon-18db14f2-4abc-4d93-96a4-72a01f6e9721
Thus I can confirm, it is not a 16.44 version, but a native M1 App Issue. Please fix that properly - since the benefits of running word natively on this chip are greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I'd recommend simply going back to 16.43 until this is fixed. 16.43 will also run slowly, but you'll be periodically reminded to update, and you can just say no until this is fixed.
If you do switch Word back to Rosetta Mode, please be sure to set a reminder to come back here and check on compatibility so you don't leave it running under Rosetta forever.
For now, you can fix this by reverting to Word 16.43.
(Technical details, for the curious: Zotero uses Apple Events to communicate with Word, and trying to pass 2048 (2^11) or more characters of text via an Apple Event running under Rosetta to an Apple Silicon–optimized app results in a freeze. The same thing happens trying to pass 2048 characters in an AppleScript from Script Editor to TextEdit when Script Editor is set to run under Rosetta. It doesn't happen when both apps are running under Rosetta, as was the case before Word 16.44.)
Anyway, I guess most Zotero users on M1 who don't look at this forum or didn't come up with the Rosetta solution themselves are panicking right now.
The best way to fix all this would be to make Zotero a universal binary asap. Now that Firefox, Chrome, Office,… are all universal, it would make sense for Zotero to follow as well. This would also give a nice performance benefit for both Word and the Zotero client.
I know you're all busy, it's almost Christmas, et cetera… We all understand, but just to let you know, for us M1 users, we're really looking forward to this! ;-)
May be I'll check here for news, waiting for them I ll go on with Word 16.43 avoiding all kind of upgrade.
Thx a lot for this service!
Last night u had been here like a light in darkness, I had quite lost hope to save my doctorate references.
see u
We're still working on a workaround for this.
And I do understand making a universal binary will take a lot of work! First step is of course to make Zotero work flawlessly under Rosetta. Ideally we will only have to run the Zotero client in Rosetta and not Word, so hopefully the Word issue can be fixed!
Unfortunately, we don't think we can realistically work around this bug in macOS and will likely need to wait for Apple to fix it. It's not yet fixed in the first Big Sur 11.2 public beta, but we've escalated this through Apple's developer channels and will try to get someone's attention before 11.2 is released, likely sometime in January.
Sorry for the inconvenience this has caused. Fortunately, there are a couple easy workarounds until we can get this fixed by Apple.
Out of curiosity, what kind of timescale are we talking? Weeks? Months? Years?
(I'm a big fan of Zotero so thanks for your hard work on it all + happy chirstmas to you all)