Word error and failed citation insertions after updating

jmberger0 · 2025-09-16T22:07:25+00:00

Hi - I have seen a few other comments like this, but I haven't yet come across a solution. Since updating Zotero, I now get the following error message when I try to insert a citation: "Zotero experienced an error updating your document. Would you like to view troubleshooting instructions?

I tried quitting Word and Zotero, deleting the plug-in from the appropriate Library folder, and then reinstalling it per the troubleshooting instructions, but this has not worked (oddly, it worked for installing one citation, once, in one instance but stopped with the second citation - in other attempts it didn't work at all).

I get the error whether I am trying to insert a citation into a document with existing citations or into a new, totally empty document. I'm currently running Word 16.101 (25091314), Zotero 7.0.26, and MacOS 15.6.1 on a 14" MacBook Pro M1. I tried restarting the computer a few times as well between attempts but to no avail.

Any advice would be welcome, thanks.

dstillman · 2025-09-16T22:08:11+00:00

Can you provide a Report ID?

jmberger0 · 2025-09-17T10:34:33+00:00

Hi - where would I find this? All I see is a little pop-up window with the error asking if I'd like to go to the troubleshooting page. I'm also happy to dig up any log files if they are generated.
Thanks much.

damnation · 2025-09-17T10:55:51+00:00

See the link in dstillman's answer with instructions.

jmberger0 · 2025-09-17T13:48:25+00:00

Ah - sorry. The report ID is 28067330.

adomasven · 2025-09-18T03:46:54+00:00

Could you also produce a Debug ID for an attempt to insert a citation that results in an error?

jmberger0 · 2025-09-18T15:37:49+00:00

Yes - it's: D1252856728.

adomasven · 2025-09-19T06:47:24+00:00

You have some software installed that interacts with the MacOS clipboard, e.g. by providing clipboard history, which interferes with Zotero plugin. You should temporarily disable the clipboard software. If that doesn't resolve the issue, temporarily remove the software and restart your Mac.

jmberger0 · 2025-09-19T11:00:24+00:00

Hi - can you tell me which software I need to disable?

adomasven · 2025-09-19T11:33:29+00:00

This is not default macOS software, so something you have installed. You will have to investigate applications that you have installed and see which one it could possibly be.

jmberger0 · 2025-09-19T17:01:13+00:00

Are there any clues from the error report or debug script? I run a research lab and have many dozens of third-party applications. I have no way of knowing which might be the problem.

adamsmith · 2025-09-19T18:46:59+00:00

A tool interacting with your clipboard should hopefully be a clue. Most commonly that'd be a clipboard manager.

jmberger0 · 2025-09-19T19:23:20+00:00

Thanks, but I don't use a clipboard manager...there's no insight or conflict with something specific that can be gleaned from the debug report? I can't uninstall/reinstall 40+ programs to see where the issue might be...

adamsmith · 2025-09-19T19:39:20+00:00

I don't see the report, but if memory serves me correctly the only thing it show it that something is interfering with standard clipboard behavior, not the name/signature of the tool that does, so I'm afraid not.

The way I'd think about narrowing it down is that any tool that's intended to work with/across multiple applications might be a culprit. Tools that are intended to be standalone tools (think: word processors, data analysis tools like Anaconda or Rstudio, etc.) are very likely not.

jmberger0 · 2025-09-20T14:22:27+00:00

So, after much trial and error I can say that it's not it's not another app. The error arises if I have copied text from a Word comment box (which is RTF) sitting in the clipboard. It does not happen when the clipboard is empty, or if it contains plain text. It also does not seem to happen if I have copied RTF text from the Word document into the clipboard; although I did trigger this once while trying different copying combinations, I wasn't able to reproduce it (I for a moment had thought that certain punctuation marks like colons would trigger the error, but the few that I tried seemed OK) .

This situation arose because a collaborator had put reference information (PMID numbers) into Word comment boxes, which I was then copying and pasting into Firefox to pull up the reference and load it into my Zotero library using the plug-in extension. In the meantime, the copied text from the comment box sat in the clipboard while then tried to insert the citation. This had worked fine in the previous 6.X version of Zotero but does not work now with the 7.X version.

I would be curious if you were able to replicate this with my same version of Word and Zotero.