Scrivener chrash on import .docx file with Mendely citations

Hi, Newb here.

This is probably a silly question, but I can’t find the solution in the Knowledge Base (maybe I’m using the wrong search terms).

I’ve just finished the tutorial, and am trying to import my existing work. Writing as an academic, all my previous work has been made using Office 2013 with Mendeley citations and bibliography. When I try importing those, Scrivener instantly crashes.

It doesn’t crash if I import a document that has just a few sentences in it (I tried that). How do I solve this or where can I find an explanation on how to deal with this? I’m working on a Surface 3 Pro with Windows 8.1. All my previous work (quite a lot) has been cited using Mendeley, so I can’t work any further until I know how to fix this.

Sorry for bothering and thanks in advance!

This are the problem details I’m getting:

Hmm, ok… from the lack of response I guess this isn’t a common or easily solvable problem? I know that it’s the holidays so I’ll patiently wait for a reply, but it’s unfortunate I can’t easily use Scrivener to work on my thesis, course outlines or papers now. I was looking forward to it, it seems like a great program.

Any advise is most welcome, also on converting .docx files with Mendeley citations easier/quicker to a format that doesn’t make Scrivener crash. I can now only import .docx files that don’t contain any citations at all. Copy past to Google Docs, clear formatting and downloading as .docx doesn’t work, but I’m no hero with anything technical and haven’t explored many other options.

I do know about the whole Onedrive incompatibility and take that into account.

Try exporting the docx’s to RTF using Word or OpenOffice or one of the latter’s clones. RTF is Scrivener’s native format, so that may help.

I’m a Mac user and have never used Mendeley, so I can’t help further than that suggestion.

Hope you get it sorted, and best wishes for the New Year.

Mr X

As Mr X suggested, re-saving as an RTF might avoid the crash. You can also try changing the DOCX import converter in Scrivener. Go to Tools > Options… and click the Import/Export tab, then the “Import Converters…” button. Select “DOCX” from the drop-down menu on the left and then choose the alternative converter from the menu on the right.

Once you’ve set each of the converters, click OK out of that window and then OK to close Options and try the import again.