I'm not seeing the screenshot with the plugins, but you should just try with all your plugins disabled. If you can't start it up at all to disable them, you can just delete the 'extensions' folder in your Zotero profile directory.
If it works without the plugins, you can try enabling them one by one to see if you can figure out which is triggering this. (It's probably not the plugin's fault — there's a known bug in Zotero where plugins that open a progress window can trigger a crash when external monitors are used. We'll fix that, but for technical reasons can't do so until Zotero 7 next year.)
I develop Zotero on a Mac Studio, so there's certainly no general problem with using Zotero with an external monitor.
First one I tried disabling was Better BibTex for Zotero (6.7.24) - allows it to work with both external monitors. When enabled works with one external monitor (either). Zotero opens on 'Display: VE247, 1920 x 1080 (1080p FHD - Full High Definition), MirrorOff, Online'.
Only popup visible was bottom right when Better BibTex is initialising.
I work on a MacBook Pro 2018 connected to two external monitors using a caldigit TS3plus TB dock. Never had this problem. You can disable the popup by changing the hidden variable startupProgress to the exact text progressbar.
Upgrade Storage
Tried reinstalling but to no avail
Do you have third-party plugins installed? If so, try holding down Shift while starting up Zotero to temporarily disable them.
Model: MacBookPro11,4, BootROM 430.140.3.0.0, 4 processors, Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 2.8 GHz, 16 GB, SMC 2.29f24
Graphics: Intel Iris Pro, Intel Iris Pro, Built-In
Display: Color LCD, 2880 x 1800 Retina, Main, MirrorOff, Online
Display: BK550Y, 1080 x 1920, MirrorOff, Online
Display: VE247, 1920 x 1080 (1080p FHD - Full High Definition), MirrorOff, Online
Memory Module: BANK 0/DIMM0, 8 GB, DDR3, 1600 MHz, 0x80AD, 0x484D54343147533642465238412D50422020
Memory Module: BANK 1/DIMM0, 8 GB, DDR3, 1600 MHz, 0x80AD, 0x484D54343147533642465238412D50422020
AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_wifi (0x14E4, 0x152), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (7.77.111.1 AirPortDriverBrcmNIC-1710.4)
Bluetooth: Version (null), 0 services, 0 devices, 0 incoming serial ports
Network Service: Thunderbolt Ethernet, Ethernet, en3
PCI Card: Apple 57762-A0, Ethernet Controller, Thunderbolt@195,0,0
Serial ATA Device: APPLE SSD SM0256G, 251 GB
USB Device: USB30Bus
USB Device: Portable
USB Device: Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller
USB Device: ErgoDox EZ Glow
Thunderbolt Bus: MacBook Pro, Apple Inc., 27.1
Thunderbolt Device: Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter, Apple Inc., 1, 5.5
(from the report)
Thank you so much - works when starting without monitors connected, but not with shift. I have a number of plugins - screenshot in drive above.
Would I have to disconnect them every time? I'm about to switch to a Mac Studio so will have to have at least one attached then.
If it works without the plugins, you can try enabling them one by one to see if you can figure out which is triggering this. (It's probably not the plugin's fault — there's a known bug in Zotero where plugins that open a progress window can trigger a crash when external monitors are used. We'll fix that, but for technical reasons can't do so until Zotero 7 next year.)
I develop Zotero on a Mac Studio, so there's certainly no general problem with using Zotero with an external monitor.
Only popup visible was bottom right when Better BibTex is initialising.
We'll see if there's anything we can do to fix this before Zotero 7.
progressbar.