Warning: "Using fall-back BibTeX(8) backend:(biblatex) functionality may be reduced/unavailable."

Question

How can I resolve the warning in the title? I have tried using different backends (biber and bibtex8): it will either not fix the problem, or make worse problems.

MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[backend=bibtex,style=numeric,natbib=true,citestyle=numeric-comp,sorting=none]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{thesis.bib}

\begin{document}

    The Pearl Street Station and subsequent plants provided power at 110V dc \cite{hirsh_emergence_2002}.

    \printbibliography

\end{document}

And bibliography:

@misc{hirsh_emergence_2002,
  title = {Emergence of {{Electrical Utilities}} in {{America}}},
  timestamp = {2017-03-05T00:55:18Z},
  howpublished = {\url{http://americanhistory.si.edu/powering/}},
  journal = {Smithsonian Institution: Powering a Generation of Change},
  author = {Hirsh, Richard F.},
  month = sep,
  year = {2002}
}

Answer 1

The warning is issued when using the BibTeX (or BibTeX8) back-ends as these are more restricted in their functionality than Biber is. As such, some biblatex features simply won't work unless Biber is in use, and others will use a 'fall back' approach with reduced functionality.

Depending on your requirements, BibTeX(8) may be fine. For example, in my own subject area, chemistry, the requirements for bibliography formatting are simple and BibTeX is able to produce the same output as Biber. However, this can only be known by the user: biblatex issues a warning as this informs the user they have to check that they get the output they want.

Answer 2

I am using Miktex + TeXworks. I had biblatex errors when compiling, in addition to this warning.

Upon changing

\usepackage[backend=bibtex,style=numeric,sortcites,natbib=true,sorting=none]{biblatex}

to

\usepackage[backend=biber,style=numeric,sortcites,natbib=true,sorting=none]{biblatex}

both warning and errors went away.

Answer 3

I just wanted to mention that this warning for me appeared when I had a & in one of the references, which should be \&.

I was looking for hours for the error, since the main error was

Misplaced alignment tab character &. \end

(and I was just checking the text and forgot the bib)

Maybe it helps someone in the future.