Upgrade StorageQuestion about updating to Zotero 10.0 for Mac
After updating to Zotero 10.0 for Mac, the Word plugin opens normally. The folder structure on the left matches Zotero, but the item list on the right is empty, and searching for any reference returns no results.
https://www.zotero.org/support/adding_items_to_zotero#standalone_attachments_and_parent_items
If you don't think it's that, Restart in Troubleshooting Mode (Help → "Restart in Troubleshooting Mode…”), which temporarily disables all plugins. If that fixes it, you'll need to identify the plugin that's causing it and then report the problem to the plugin's developer. If not, provide screenshots of what you're seeing in Zotero and in the citation dialog.
Standalone attachments have no metadata and have never been properly citable in any version of Zotero, so if that's the issue, you need to create parent items.
As shown in the attached screenshot, the collection hierarchy in the Word citation dialog is identical to the hierarchy in the Zotero desktop app. However, when I select a collection (for example, “Electrocatalysis”), the item list on the right is completely empty, even though the same collection contains 804 items in Zotero.
Searching by title, author, or DOI also returns no results in the Word citation dialog. Zotero itself displays and searches the library normally.
What I have tried:
- Fully quit and restarted both Word and Zotero
- Reinstalled the Microsoft Word add-in from Zotero
- Manually copied the Zotero.dotm template to the Word Startup folder
- Enabled macros in Word
- Tested different citation dialog modes
- Confirmed that the local Zotero database and storage folder exist
The issue started immediately after updating Zotero yesterday. The Word add-in is visible and can open the citation dialog, but it cannot load or search any library items.
Zotero version: 10.0 (ARM64)
macOS version: 26.5.2
Debug ID: D498487729
Could you please advise how to restore access to the library items in the Word citation dialog?
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u20878990/ff0uxso05d93z1v4pgjy.png
If you want to cite, you need to create parent items with metadata:
https://www.zotero.org/support/adding_items_to_zotero#standalone_attachments_and_parent_items
If these are standard academic PDFs, even just dragging them into Zotero would generally have created parent items automatically, but it's possible you did some sort of mass-import of attachment items from another program using RIS or BibTeX — that'd be the only real way to end up with lots of standalone attachments. You can right-click on them and choose "Retrieve Metadata" to try to create parent items now. For the ones where that doesn't work, the linked page explains the various ways to create parent items for them.