EndNote X8 Keeps Crashing on Mac

I called EndNote and they said apple knows about this and is working to fix. Slow slow slow-- reminds me of Microsoft.

Said it has to do with handing PDFs in EndNote

I am sorry to hear that? Where do you keep your library  comparebox.pk/Movies/Vidya-Balan-Arth-Movie-Trailer-And-Release-Date

I’m pretty sure that PDF is a red herring (has little or nothing to do with crash issues). Using word2011 instead of word2016 may be a work-around to avoid crashing. Details below.

I think the pdf problem is a seperate issue that has nothing to do with the crashes of word2016 (15.x) and/or Endnote 8.1.

Assuming the pdf issue has to do with “highlighting text is misaligned”, mentioned elsewhere. This is a known-issue that has been reported to Apple, and happens with other software besides Endnote.

Here is why I think the pdf issue is not related to the crashes or word2016 and/or endnote… Have mac osx 10.12.6 with all updates, and it has both word2016 (with all updates) and word2011 with all updates (= version 14.7.7 (170905) = the final update for office2011, since support ended Oct 10, 2017).

Word2016 crashing several times daily when using Endnote 8.1. But one same computer, Word2011 is working fine. If the pdf problem was causing the crashes, then why does word2011 seem to work fine on same mac where crashes happen with word2016? That’s why I think the PDF issue has nothing to do with most of the crashes reported on this forum that have been going on since at least May 2017.

Note: I don’t know if word2011 will work on osx-10.13 (high sierra): probably not. But if you have 10.12 or eariler, you can try word2011. If you do not have word2011, you can still download the installer and the culumulative updater for office2011 (you probably want to install *only* word, and not excel-2011, not power-point-2011, and certainly not outlook-2011 !).

Installer for Office2011 and culumulative updater is at the 2 links at macadmins.software site and the links are also 

in attached Word2011-as-workaround.txt file if they don’t come through below.

http://officecdn-microsoft-com.akamaized.net/PR/MacOffice2011/en-us/ MicrosoftOffice2011.dmg

https://support.microsoft.com/help/3212225

 I used to have a site-licened word2011, and when re-installing the installer found the old site license for it.)

I’m not sure if word2011 will work on high-sierra (10.13), but still seems to work fine with newest endnote 8.1  on 10.12 (sierra) and earlier 10.11. However, there will be no more security updates for office2011, so using word2011 should be seen as temporary workaround until the crashes with word2016/endnote8 seem solved. 

I would be interested in hearing if others have found that using word2011 lessens crashing or not. If it does, then we should try to submit detailed bug reports, including steps to reproduce the crash, crash reports. etc.

@sertoli wrote:

I called EndNote and they said apple knows about this and is working to fix. Slow slow slow-- reminds me of Microsoft.

Said it has to do with handing PDFs in EndNote

Sorry I don’t have any help regarding the crashing of Endnote itself.

But using word2011 instead of word2016 may be a work-around to avoid crashing of word. I don’t think using word2011 will help with the crashing of endnote8, but using word2011 instead of word2016 seems to reduce crashing of word (when using endnote cwyw). Details below.

The  pdf problem is a seperate issue that may contribute to crashing of endnote, but seems to have little if anything to do with the crashes of word2016 (15.x). That is, Assuming the pdf issue has to do with “highlighting text is misaligned”, mentioned elsewhere. Endnote folks say that this has been reported to Apple, and happens with other software besides Endnote.

Here is why I think the pdf issue is not related to the crashes or word2016. Have mac osx 10.12.6 with all updates, and it has both word2016 (with all updates) and word2011 with all updates (= version 14.7.7 (170905) = the final update for office2011, since support ended Oct 10, 2017).

Word2016 crashing several times daily when using Endnote 8.1. But one same computer, Word2011 is working fine. If the pdf problem was causing the crashes of word, then why does word2011 seem to work fine on same mac where crashes happen with word2016? That’s why I think the PDF issue has nothing to do any crashes of word reported on this forum. .

Note: I don’t know if word2011 will work on osx-10.13 (high sierra): probably not. But if you have 10.12 or eariler, you can try word2011. If you do not have word2011, you can still download the installer and the culumulative updater for office2011 (you probably want to install *only* word, and not excel-2011, not power-point-2011, and certainly not outlook-2011 !).

Installer and updater are 2 links at macadmins.software  and also in attached word2011-workaround.txt file

http://officecdn-microsoft-com.akamaized.net/PR/MacOffice2011/en-us/ MicrosoftOffice2011.dmg

https://support.microsoft.com/help/3212225

I’m not sure if word2011 will work on high-sierra (10.13), but still seems to work fine with newest endnote 8.1  on 10.12 (sierra) and earlier 10.11. However, there will be no more security updates for office2011, so using word2011 should be seen as temporary workaround until the crashes with word2016/endnote8 seem solved. 

I would be interested in hearing if others have found that using word2011 lessens crashing or not. If it does, then we should try to submit detailed bug reports to endote, including steps to reproduce the crash, crash reports. etc.

word2011-workaround.txt (2.66 KB)

I’m new to endnote as of today.  I’ve got a Mac with High Sierra and word 2011.  In my 1 days use I’ve not had any random crashing of either endnote or word (possibly because my library is very small). However, every time I try to make a smart group on end note it just shuts down.

I’ve had the exact same problem! Mac OS X High Sierra, Word 2016, just upgraded EndNote to X8 and every time I try to create a smart group it crashes (i.e. the application closes unexpectedly) immediately when I press the button ‘create’.

When I re-open EndNote, the smart group has not been created.

UPDATE: updating to EndNote X8.0.1 solved this issue. However I had to update following these instructions:

http://community.thomsonreuters.com/t5/EndNote-General/X8-on-Mac-keeps-prompting-for-update-even-after-update-has-quot/m-p/135600#M26781

That would be a crash… Since reverting to X7, designed by the previous Thomson Reuters team, 0 issues. Was reimbursed for X8. What a buggy product since Clarivate bought it all and “streamlined” personnel.

After upgrading my MAC os to High Sierra 10.13.2 I find out that Endnote X7 is not compatible and just would not open, so I have just paid for the upgrade to X8 to find that this crashes instantly with any attempt to interact with it.  This really is not fair, although I have submitted my PhD thesis I have my viva next week, so desperately need to be looking at my stored references. I also need to be subitting manuscripts and rely on Endnote for that.

I’ve tried the upgrade fix, no joy.  I’ve tried syncing with a cloud version but they do not match and contain fewer references.

Please tell me there is a solution, otherwise I will attempt to take my 2000 references and switch to another referencing manager!!

Are people still having this problem??

I am running OS 10.13.3 but have older versions of OS 10 running on my other computers (and the same thing happens).  Endnote continuously crashes and I am unable to add references to a group or even a PDF to some of my references. I have rebuilt my database and am running it off my desktop.  The program crashes even without a database loaded so this is not a database issue.  

I just downloaded the trial version of the lastest version of the shiny Endnote 8 on my MBP, running High Sierra 10.13.3.

I’m experiencing the crash on startup that everyone is talking about. I have only inputted 5 references so far.

I like what Endnote is supposed to do, but this type of unreliability with something so important (my daily research and writing) for a whopping $250 USD… is something that is giving me second thoughts.

Can anyone give any advice? Is there a solution or something better? 

It’s so frustrating when a brand new product struggles with such basic issues (it won’t start!). 

I just downloaded the trial version of the lastest version of the shiny Endnote 8 on my MBP, running High Sierra 10.13.3.

I’m experiencing the crash on startup that everyone is talking about. I have only inputted 5 references so far.

I like what Endnote is supposed to do, but this type of unreliability with something so important (my daily research and writing) for a whopping $250 USD… is something that is giving me second thoughts.

Can anyone give any advice? Is there a solution or something better? 

It’s so frustrating when a brand new product struggles with such basic issues (it won’t start!). 

Hi everyone,

I was experiencing the same thing. I’m on a Mac and was using the latest versions. I’m in the last six weeks of my PhD thesis (I have about 2000 footnotes) and was about to have a nervous breakdown because of the issues I was having with Endnote 8. I tried everything suggested here and am a long time Endnote user - and it’s been a rocky relationship.

So… I went back and installed Endnote 7, uninstalled Word 2016 16, installed Word 2016 15.39, and now life isn’t as terrifying as it was. So far, so good!

I would strongly suggest you do this while they fix Endnote 8 (if they ever do).

Good luck!

I am desperately trying to complete my PhD dissertation at Virginia Tech.  I upgraded my MacBook Air to High Sierra and EndNote X8 recently and I wish that I hadn’t.  X8 seems to continually crash on my system.  I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling EndNote, in addition to Office 2016, but nothing helps.  I am at a sufficicient stage of despiration to be willing to downgrade my system back to Sierra / EndNote X7, however I need an install code for my institution’s (Virginia Tec) EndNote X7 license.  Who do I contact and how do I get this code?

X8.2 on macOS is so slow and so unstable as to be useless. I’ve opened tickets/cases with support only to have them deflect blame to Apple. Yes, PDFkit has issues but not issues that would cause these problems. I’m left to conclude that EndNote is not suitable for it’s intended purpose and will have to move on to another product (Mendeley or Zotero). It’s really pathetic.

After having the exact same issue on both Endnote 7 and updated 8.2 constantly crashing on my MacBook Pro (OS Sierra 10.12.6) and being completely unworkable as I’m writing my thesis, I have discovered the following:

    • Issues arose after MPB operating system El Capitan 10.11 (I.e., if your OS is this or earlier, you should be fine) due to Apple changing their PDFkit.
    • In my Endnote Library, this has resulted in some of my pdfs being duplicated in the “PDF” folder in the .Data file of my Library. (I.e., more than one of the sub folders contained the same pdf for a given reference in my Endnote Library). 
    • If you only use Endnote as a citation manager and not as a reference manager, then you can just move the “PDF” folder from the .Data folder to somewhere else. This will stabalize Endnote, but you will have to access all your pdfs manually by searching for them in the moved “PDF” folder.

Here is the fix I did (564 references, with 311 pdfs):

  1. SAVE A COPY OF YOUR LIBRARY!!! (put the backup in a safe place). It is easy to screw up how your library talks to the attached pdfs, so make sure you have an original untouched backup somewhere.
  2. Close Endnote if you have it open
  3. Open the .Data folder of your library, make a copy of the “PDF” folder to a temporary different location, like your desktop.
  4. Now create a new empty folder and name it “PDF_temporary_fixing” on your desktop. 
  5. You now have two folders on your desktop, the copied “PDF” folder, and the “PDF_temporary_fixing”
  6. In this copied “PDF” folder that you have moved to your desktop, move all of the pdfs out of their sub folders and into the “PDF_temporary_fixing”. There are shortcuts that you can google on how to do this quickly instead of moving one-by-one if you have a ton of pdfs.
  7. Now you should have just a list of pdf files on your “PDF_temporary_fixing” folder. By doing this, you will be able to identify  any duplicates of pdfs because they will have the same name (write these down). You would have a much harder time doing this if you have to go through the sub folders one-by-one.
  8. You can now delete the copied PDF folder, as you have now identified your duplicates.
  9. Go back into your .Data folder of your Library, and into your “PDF” folder that you have there, and search within that “PDF” folder for the identified pdf duplicates. Write down the folder number that the duplicates (both/all copies) are in. For example: for pdf “Smith-2016.pdf” you could have one duplicate in folder “3907727203” and another in folder “2442186214”. It is also worth it to look at each pdf in adobe to see if one has any highlights/comments that you may have made, so you know which one to keep. I also made note of which file was older/bigger to help me decide which one I would keep.
  10. By this step you should have a list of all your duplicates, their folders, and an idea of which ones you would like to keep.
  11. Now you get to go into the “PDF” folder in the .Data folder and delete the folders with duplicates!
  12. You’re not quite done yet, you now have to open Endnote and make sure that the references which had multiple .pdfs are still talking to the remaining .pdf in the “PDF” folder in the .Data folder. Search for each reference and click on it to see if it still opens the reference. If they all do, great! You’re done and can also delete your “PDF_temporary_fixing” folder. If not, then keep going.
  13. For any references that aren’t opening their pdfs, you have to re-attach them manually.
  14. Close Endnote
  15. Go into the “PDF” folder in the .Data folder, and move  the folders with the references you want to attach completely out of the “PDF” folder and onto your desktop.
  16. Open Endnote, and search for each reference that you need to re-attach. Drag their associated pdf onto the reference in Endnote to attach manually. Do this for each reference.
  17. You can now delete the moved folders on your desktop, as Endnote automatically creates a new copy in the “PDF” folder.

By doing the above my Endnote significantly stabilized. I found 6 duplicated references out of 311, so hopefully this is more of a sporadic occurence. I also would recommend manually attaching pdfs to imported references instead of getting Endnote to find and attach the pdfs for you. Don’t forget to create back-ups of your library regularly if something goes wrong.

I hope this works for other people! It’s labour-intensive but salvaged my thesis, library, and prevented me from having to run Endnote in Bootcamp or Parallels Desktop.

**UPDATE #1** after one week of regular daily use, the software remains stabilized. I am curious if others have tried and had any sucess using my posted fix?

**UPDATE #2** stburrow highlights an aspect of this problem that I haven’t encountered, being the use of Smart Groups, because I have not used them in my libraries. Therefore it appears that my fix will not work if the library utilizes Smart Groups.

hope someone can help it too

I am having the same exact problems. I am so frustrated. Has anyone figured out how to fix endnote so we can actually use it on our Macpro laptops? Thanks

I have been monitoring this thread since my posting three weeks ago.  I decided to try a few fixes, all without success.  Owing to my present status (writing dissertation, full-time) I don’t have the luxury of waiting for Clarivate to fix EN 8.2.  I have exported my EN library to SonnySoftware’s Bookends program.  Maybe some of this troubleshooting will help somebody else figure something out for Endnote, but I doubt it:

Following up on the suggestions by K-Jacob that duplicate pdf’s in the EN library tend to destabilize the program, I removed about 215 duplicates from my 6000+ record EN library.  When I tried to use some functionality in EN that used to work (smart groups) the program crashed multiple times.  Not a confidence builder for EN 8.2.

Next I tried using the EN ‘Recover Library…’ function in the ‘Tools’ menu.  After I entered the name of the recovered library, EN began indexing the pdf files in the recovered library.  Usually after getting through indexing about 15 pdf files the program crashed.  Later I deleted all the pdf files from the library copy that I was trying to recover, and the ‘Recover Library…’ function was able to complete whatever it does to fix a corrupted EN library.  Clearly the program was having some problems with some of my pdf files, but when I tried using the smart groups function within my recovered library, sans pdf files, the EN 8.2 program still crashed.

I think that there are multiple bugs contributing to the instability of EndNote 8.2 on the Mac.  As prior posters have noted (and I also was told by Clarivate support) Clarivate blames Apple for changes it made to the OS X pdf tool kit since the El Capitan release.  Perhaps that is true to some extent, but to my thinking it is the software vendor’s responsibility to adjust to changes in the operating systems that it sells products for.  El Capitan has been out for over two years, which seems to me plenty of time to develop and issue an update to EndNote that addresses whatever changes in Sierra and High Hierra occured.  When I contacted Clarivate about my problems with EndNote X8.2 three weeks ago, they advised me to reinstall everything on my computer under El Capitan and complain to Apple for them to fix OS X.  That suggestion is patently absurd.  I am not going to break my computer’s ability to interact with my other Apple devices (iPad, iPhone, etc.) because Clarivate is trying to shame Apple into changing their operating system.  I expect Apple doesn’t care a toss over how well one program (EndNote) functions on their products.  I could be wrong about Clarivate and/or Apple, and maybe patches are just about to be released.  Unfortunately I have work to get finished over the next thirty days, and I am not going to gamble on loading up my dissertation with EndNote citation codes if I can’t trust EndNote to run without crashing.  I don’t need the headache of watching EndNote freeze/crash while trying to finish my final dissertation copy.  All of this situation is a shame.  EndNote wasn’t the fanciest software for managing research literature, but I had developed a lot of workarounds for functionalities that were missing or that I had issues with.  Now I am going to have to start over with Bookends, which in itself is a headache but in the long run it is a headache I can deal with.  People and institutions depend on programs like EndNote.  I don’t appreciate getting caught in the middle of a staring match between Apple and Clarivate, waiting to see who blinks first.

Bien évidemment, je rencontre le même problème

La qualité n’est pas le fort de Thomson Reuters

Je déconseille fortement ce logiciel et encourage tout un chacun à utiliser Zotero

I’ve also found that Endnote crashes whenever I try to create a smart group.

Obviously, this isn’t a new problem.

Neither would it logically have anything to do with MacOS or pdfs. Clearly, the Endnote program has a serious bug.

Time to lift your game Clarivate!