On Apple Silicon (M1) Macs, due to a bug in macOS, it's not currently possible to use Zotero with Word 16.44 or later in its default configuration.

We've reported the bug to Apple, but we don't know when it will be fixed. In the meantime, you can easily work around this problem in a couple ways, though Word will run somewhat more slowly.

The safest option is to downgrade to Word 16.43. If you're running Time Machine, this is as simple as restoring Microsoft Word in your Applications folder to the version before the 16.44 update on December 15, 2020. You can also download the Word 16.43 update package, delete Microsoft Word from your Applications folder, and run the installer, which will reinstall Word 16.43.

You should then avoid updating to Word 16.44 or later until this bug has been fixed in a future update to macOS Big Sur. Check back here for updates on compatibility.

Word 16.43 does not run natively on M1 Macs, so it will run more slowly than 16.44 and later.

If you're not able to easily downgrade to Word 16.43, you can set Word to open under Rosetta. In Finder, go to your Applications folder, click Microsoft Word, go to File → Get Info, and check “Open using Rosetta”. When you reopen Word, Zotero's Word integration will work again.

This will fix the problem, but it will cause Word to run more slowly until you uncheck the box, and even once this bug is fixed by Apple you may forget to go back and do so, causing Word to run more slowly and reduce your battery life for the indefinite future.

While reverting to Word 16.43 will also cause Word to run more slowly, you'll be periodically reminded to upgrade, and you can just decline the update until this bug is fixed in a future version of Big Sur.

If you do switch Word back to Rosetta mode, please be sure to set a reminder to return to this page and check on compatibility so you don't leave it running under Rosetta longer than necessary.

Zotero hasn't yet been ported to Apple Silicon, so it runs under Rosetta on M1 Macs. Prior to Word 16.44, Word also ran under Rosetta, and Zotero's Word integration worked without problems.

Starting with Word 16.44, released on December 15, 2020, Word runs natively on M1 Macs. Zotero uses Apple Events to communicate with Word, and due to a bug in macOS, trying to pass 2048 (2^11) or more characters of text between a Rosetta app and an Apple Silicon app via an Apple Event 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, or vice versa. It doesn't happen when both apps are running under Rosetta, as was the case before Word 16.44.

A future version of Zotero will run natively on Apple Silicon Macs, but not for a while. Zotero is based on Firefox, but upgrading to the recently released version of Firefox that supports Apple Silicon requires a major rewrite of Zotero. Additionally, the functionality that Word integration depends on hasn't yet been updated by Mozilla, so an Apple Silicon version of Zotero still wouldn't work at the moment.

If you have questions about this issue, let us know in the relevant forum thread.