Error! Hyperlink reference not found. in Word TOC

Question

When I update an entire Table of Contents, all deleted items start with inserted text "Error! Hyperlink reference not found." followed by the now deleted TOC1/2/3 text. This happens in new and revised documents. It seems to started in the past 4 months or so. When I open the Edit Hyperlink window, there is no content in the "text to display" or "Address" fields. Delete Hyperlink is not an option.  

Nothing I've tried has fixed this. I need to use Track Changes to show what has changed in the revision. Help! 

Answer 1

Turn off Track Changes before updating the Table of Contents.

Answer 2

Hi JeanS_1993,

Thank you for posting your query in our community.

Based on your description, you got an error "Error! Hyperlink reference not found." in Table of Contents in Word.

You could try to update the table of contents again and, if prompted, choose to update the whole table to see the result.

You can also press ALT + F9 to toggle on the display of the field codes and see if it is replaced by a field code like { TOC }.

And may I know that whether the problem happens on all the Word files? If you create a new file, will the same problem happen?

Appreciate your cooperation in advance.

Best regards,

Jazlyn

Answer 3

Hi Doug, 

Thanks for the response. I need to keep Track Changes on for auditing purposes to show what changed in the TOC. 

Jean

Answer 4

Hi Jazlyn, 

Thanks for your response. This error is occurring in all my documents - new ones and revisions to existing ones. I have tried updating the entire TOC, deleting the TOC and recreating it, and still get the error. My co-workers are also getting this same error. 

If I update only the page numbers, I get the expected/correct result. 

The result of Alt+F9: {TOC\h\z\t"Heading1,1,Heading2,2,ReqNumbering1,2"}

I thought it may be related to the .dotx template we use to standardize our documents but that does not seem to be the case. I've updated the TOC in different documents that have different .dotx applied. I also just tried updating a document from 2018 that uses the Normal .dotx and it had the same error. 

I read something from many years ago about possible hidden fields that get created but I could not figure out how to apply that old information to the current application. 

Do you have any other ideas?

Jean

Answer 5

If you are going to keep track changes in effect, you cannot avoid that behaviour when you update the table of contents.