Unable to successfully install Zotero

ellysa

I'm working with a user (I'm a librarian) who is trying to install Zotero on their Mac. Every time they click on the downloaded file to install, they receive the following message:

[Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIFile.create]" nsresult: "0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/ipc.js :: Zotero.IPC</this.init :: line 36" data: no]
Zotero.IPC</this.init@chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/ipc.js:36:9
this.init<@chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/zotero.js:372:7
From previous event:
ZoteroService@file:///Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/Resources/components/zotero-service.js:347:7
@chrome://zotero/content/include.js:4:14

We tried to restore their data folder -- I could not even find one on their computer. Thank you for any help you can provide!

dstillman

Have they used Zotero before on this computer?

Are they running any non-standard security software?

Did they move their Zotero data directory to a nonstandard location (e.g., a network share), or did this just happen the first they opened Zotero?

If they can access the Help menu, can they provide a Debug ID for Zotero startup using the "Restart with Logging Enabled…" option? Otherwise, see Reporting Startup Errors for a way to provide a Debug ID.

ellysa

They have not used Zotero before on the computer, and did not move the data directory. I'll find out about the security software and will get a Debug ID. Thanks!

ellysa

The user responded -- they are not running any special security software. She can't move the window that comes up when Zotero loads and was unable to get a debug id.
Thank you again for your help!

dstillman

She can press Cmd-` (the key above Tab) to switch focus to the debug output window and submit the Debug ID from there.

dstillman

(And if she can't figure that out, the "Alternative: Logging to the Terminal" section in Reporting Startup Errors explains how she can still submit debug output.)

dstillman

(I'd also recommend encouraging her to just post here herself. Your helping people get set up with Zotero is great, but if someone is encountering a complex technical issue that requires debugging, it's going to be much easier for us to help them if we can work with them directly.)

dstillman

This would've had to have been something unusual about the computer setup, but we've removed some old code in Zotero 6.0.22, available now, that should avoid this problem on systems where it was occurring.

ellysa

Thanks! We will give it a try.

sbr2

Hello, I am the student Ellysa is trying to help. Since I cannot access any menu buttons when opening Zotero as it starts up with the error message - I have tried debugging via Terminal as mentioned above with no luck. I have also done "Alternative: Logging to the Terminal" section in Reporting Startup Errors step. "

No such file or directory -
USER@USER-air ~ % /Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/zotero -ZoteroDebug

2023-02-26 01:38:33.994 zotero[8192:489895] *** WARNING: Textured window is getting an implicitly transparent titlebar. This will break when linking against newer SDKs. Use NSWindow's -titlebarAppearsTransparent=YES instead.
JavaScript warning: resource://zotero/loader.jsm -> resource://zotero/bluebird/util.js, line 205: unreachable code after return statement
JavaScript warning: resource://zotero/loader.jsm -> resource://zotero/bluebird/util.js, line 205: unreachable code after return statement
JavaScript warning: chrome://zotero/content/zoteroPane.js, line 6226: unreachable code after return statement

And the following appeared in the Zotero window with not being able to access any of the menu options.
The Zotero database cannot be opened.

Make sure you have read and write permissions for all files in the Zotero data directory and that security software isn’t preventing Zotero from accessing that directory.

Data Directory: /Users/Zotero


I also installed the new version after Ellysa told me - the above message popped up. So it did not change anything but the message changed from what the first message was.

Not sure what is going on because this is a new computer (macbook air) that I have never used zotero on.

dstillman

Right, so that's a different message, since we took out the code that would've triggered the old one, but it points to the same general problem — there's either something wrong with the permissions in the Zotero data directory (which shouldn't happen in a brand new installation of Zotero) or security software on the system is preventing Zotero from accessing the data directory (which is unlikely on a Mac).

Data Directory: /Users/Zotero

Did you edit this to remove your username? Because that's certainly not the correct path — your OS username should be in there.

sbr2

Hello, I am still running into the same issue. I thought after all these months if I try reinstalling it - it might have been updated to make it work in my macbook. But I still cant get Zotero to start :(((

I am not sure what the problem is with this computer specifically, I had it working in an old 2017 hp laptop.

And yes I did change the username to User to post in this public forum.

There is no data directory /Users/<username>/Zotero and I still cant acces any buttons as it shuts itself down.

Is there anything else I can do to make Zotero work? I start my research studies this year and really was hoping for it to work. Thank you for your patience and time.

dstillman

Oh, if there's no "Zotero" folder at all in the home folder, that means Zotero can't even create that folder. That points to a permissions problem in the home folder itself — it needs to be set at the bottom of the Get Info window (after unlocking the lock icon) to allow your user account to read and write to it. It certainly would be set that way by default, but this computer seems to have somehow gotten misconfigured.

You can also try creating a "Zotero" folder in the home folder yourself, which might let Zotero create files within it and avoid the permissions problem, but you might run into trouble with other software later if you don't fix the root problem.

To be clear, this absolutely isn't a problem in Zotero itself, so no Zotero update is going to fix this. If Zotero can't even create a data directory, there's no way for it to work.

And yes I did change the username to User to post in this public forum.

It's not that you changed the username to User — you just removed the username portion of the page altogether, which makes it a totally different and wrong path. That's why it was confusing.

sbr2

OMG IT WORKED!!!

So I had to unlock basically everything in my user account and allow read and write permission. I also had to unlock Zotero app as well as manually create a zotero folder in the user account applications. Hopefully this will work with newer updates too.

Thank you so much for all you help!!!!!