Upgrade StorageRepeating problems citing both in word and in google - making Zotero unusable
I’ve been using Zotero since its early days and have always found it to be the most useful reference manager out there. However, for quite some time now, I’ve been encountering recurring issues that have made it nearly unusable.
About a year ago, Zotero began crashing Microsoft Word—usually after working fine for a while on the same document. I tried all the solutions suggested in the many threads and posts related to Word integration issues, but none of them resolved the problem. Since I was already in the process of transitioning to Google Docs, I continued using Zotero there. Although the integration wasn’t perfect, it was at least workable for a while.
Unfortunately, recently even that has become impossible: Zotero consistently freezes when I try to insert a citation in Google Docs. In another browser, I repeatedly get "revoked permission" error messages. I’ve cleared my browser history, updated Zotero, and even tried a complete reinstall—but nothing has worked, or it works temporarily and then breaks again.
I see many users reporting similar issues, often with the same troubleshooting suggestions that don’t lead to a lasting fix.
I understand Zotero is a non-profit project, and I truly appreciate the work that goes into it. Still, I’d like to ask: is there any chance of a major update in the near future that might address these persistent integration problems in a more comprehensive way?
About a year ago, Zotero began crashing Microsoft Word—usually after working fine for a while on the same document. I tried all the solutions suggested in the many threads and posts related to Word integration issues, but none of them resolved the problem. Since I was already in the process of transitioning to Google Docs, I continued using Zotero there. Although the integration wasn’t perfect, it was at least workable for a while.
Unfortunately, recently even that has become impossible: Zotero consistently freezes when I try to insert a citation in Google Docs. In another browser, I repeatedly get "revoked permission" error messages. I’ve cleared my browser history, updated Zotero, and even tried a complete reinstall—but nothing has worked, or it works temporarily and then breaks again.
I see many users reporting similar issues, often with the same troubleshooting suggestions that don’t lead to a lasting fix.
I understand Zotero is a non-profit project, and I truly appreciate the work that goes into it. Still, I’d like to ask: is there any chance of a major update in the near future that might address these persistent integration problems in a more comprehensive way?
A Word crash — if you actually mean a crash, not a freeze — would be a Word bug, so you should make sure you're running the latest version of Word. If it's a freeze, we'd want to know if it happens in a new document, as well as what OS and Word version you're running.
For Google Docs, again, we'd want to know if you can reproduce a freeze in a new document.
You should also provide a Report ID from Zotero. Make sure you're running Zotero 7 and you can reproduce the problem in Troubleshooting Mode (Help → "Restart in Troubleshooting Mode…”), which temporarily disables all plugins.
As such, the Zotero team is always available on these forums, and is constantly helping users, and the first step is always troubleshooting: figuring out if an issue occurs due to some user-specific configuration, unusual workflow, outdated software, or new software that possibly could have introduced bugs. We then either advise steps to fix those issues, or try to address them on our side, where possible.
Having said all this, we are aware of both problems you have described. Microsoft Word has started crashing when citing with Zotero around 2 years ago, although most recent releases seem to be more stable. Particularly, it seems that having equations and a table of contents (and possibly other advanced elements) may cause issues. Word crashing is not something that we can fix on our side, as Zotero only uses official Word APIs that Microsoft itself provides for creation of plugins like ours. As such, Word crashing is chiefly a Microsoft bug that you should report it to them via their in-app bug reporting feature. We can only suggest workarounds and best practices to avoid crashes.
As for Google Docs, there seems to be a relatively new issue in Google Docs where the bibliography begins duplicating and causes operations to take a very long time. We would like to fix this, but nobody has provided us steps to reproduce this issue. If you find steps that work in a new document - let us know. For the time being the workaround is to remove the bibliography and its duplicates and reinsert it using the Add/Edit Bibliography option in the Zotero menu.
For future: even if you find threads that seem to describe an issue you're having with Zotero, it cannot hurt to create a thread and ask about it. Perhaps we'll figure out additional troubleshooting steps that will help us identify the source of the issue and find a permanent fix on our side, or a better workaround.