Issue
When trying to access the Zotero plugin from Microsoft Word, user would get the error:
Word could not communicate with Zotero. Please ensure Zotero is running and try again.
Environment
Managed macOS laptop
Description
I'm writing a proposal with Word on a Mac computer. I use a citation program that is called Zotero. It always worked and just now is not working anymore and so there is a plug in with Chrome and so on.
So the problem is that my word program cannot see the citation program Zotero and I tried to follow in the web all the the way to troubleshoot this problem like reloading the codes and then restart to the computer and all that kind of thing. Nothing works, so we I needed some more sophisticated help.
What I see the preferences, it looks like the theory is not allowed to see other files in my computer. So if it's kind of a security problem on my computer. So I, if I could do it, get some help today or tomorrow, that would be wonderful. It's really important because I have a file with all my citations that I use in my papers and my proposals, and if I cannot access those records anymore and I need to retype 1 by 1 of the references, it will be a disaster. So, but before giving up, I wanted to be sure that maybe somebody can help me.
Resolution
This problem can be solved by following Zotero's troubleshooting documentation.
To summarize, a broken startup file for Word hiding in a "wordstartup" folder in the Applications folder was causing this issue. The proper Zotero plug-in file was in the macOS Library location linked by Zotero's documentation. Deleting that rogue file and pointing the startup preferences for Word to the correct location according to the troubleshooting steps solved the problem.