App freezing every few seconds

dstillman Zotero Team
This discussion was created from comments split from: Zotero latest version - so slow & sluggish.
  • coliver6
    My Zotero desktop version on my new MacBook Pro is doing the same thing. I cannot do anything without a 4-5 second spinning color wheel popping up. It happens about every 6-7 seconds. This makes it impossible for me to use the app. Very frustrating.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    Please start new threads for new issues. I've moved this to a new thread.

    That's obviously not a normal experience. Can you provide a Debug ID for Zotero startup through reproduce this, using the "Restart with Logging Enabled…" option?
  • coliver6
    Zotero desktop version 6.0.26.
    MacBook Pro
    Ventura 13.4.1

    Zotero Error Report:

    No chrome package registered for chrome://browser/content/macBrowserOverlay.xul

    No chrome package registered for chrome://browser/content/macBrowserOverlay.xul

    version => 6.0.26, platform => MacIntel, oscpu => Intel Mac OS X 10.16, locale => en-US, appName => Zotero, appVersion => 6.0.26, extensions => Zotero LibreOffice Integration (6.0.4.SA.6.0.26, extension), Zotero Word for Mac Integration (6.0.6.SA.6.0.26, extension), Better BibTex for Zotero (6.7.93, extension)

    Report of what's happening:

    Every 3-4 seconds the Mac spinning color wheel opens and freezes anything I'm trying to do. It lasts about the same amount time. This is happening over and over. It's so problematic than it took me about 5 minutes to simply access the info above. As of right now, Zotero is completely useless for me. I don't need to do anything to recreate this issue. It's just happening over and over (it's the only thing happening in Zotero).

    In my Mac Activity Monitor, Zotero is using between 95% to over 100% of my CPU and 1.7-1.8 GB of memory.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    @coliver6: Again, I've moved your posts to this thread. Please stop posting to the other person's thread.

    We need the Debug ID I asked for above to help you further.

    But you should try disabling BBT before doing anything.
  • coliver6
    D1979034618
  • coliver6
    "Disabling BBT"? Can you explain?
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited July 7, 2023
    BBT is the Better BibTeX plugin, but that doesn't appear to be the issue here.

    First, you have an ongoing sync — you can see that the sync icon is spinning. And, specifically, it's downloading an item in your library with 8,886 creators and 7,070 tags, both of which are extreme. I don't know if it will be able to finish saving that, but you should let it try.

    It's possible performance will be OK after the item finishes saving, but if not, I'd recommend deleting that item by searching for "78M6F2C4" in All Fields & Tags mode, moving the item to the trash, and emptying the trash.

    If there are similar items in your library, problems might continue as long as those exist.

    (I'm also curious where this item came from and if the data is correct. Needless to say, Zotero isn't generally tested on items with 8000 creators and 7000 tags.)
  • coliver6
    I see what you're talking about. I'm finding a lot of these entries with large number of authors / creators and tags. All so far none of them are not anything I recognize so I'm deleting.

    But a related update. Zotero runs fine on one of my other MacBook Pros (running Monterey instead of Ventura). Seems the issue is related to Ventura (as I've read in a number of other posts).
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited July 8, 2023
    No, it has absolutely nothing to do with Ventura — Zotero is always fully compatible with the current version of macOS. It's entirely due to syncing of these extreme items. Again, you submitted a debug output while Zotero was in the middle of downloading items with literally thousands of creators and tags from your online library, so obviously you're going to see a performance impact while that's happening.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    All so far none of them are not anything I recognize so I'm deleting.
    I'm also not sure what you mean by this. These are items you added to your library. Zotero didn't put them there on its own.
  • coliver6
    Okay well runs fine on my other two MacBooks not running Ventura yet will not run on my new MacBook running Ventura (note: the computer with considerably better specs). Why would the other two computers not similarly be having syncing and running into the same issues? Note I deleted a ton of stuff and still the Ventura computer won't work. And again I've read dozens of posts about people having issues with Ventura.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited July 8, 2023
    You're misunderstanding the threads you read. Ventura is the current version of macOS, so obviously it's what most people will say they're running. That doesn't mean it has the slightest thing to do with whatever random issues people are posting about. If you're going to post here, please trust that we know what we're talking about.

    As I say, once the item finishes syncing, performance may be generally OK. You saved this item on another computer, so it wouldn't need to have been downloaded there, and if you have other computers, you just might not have noticed while it was syncing the item there.

    If you're still having performance problems, we can look at more Debug IDs for operations that are slow, but I promise you it has nothing to do with the version of macOS you're running. That's not a thing and never has been.

    Make sure you've emptied the trash and restarted Zotero after deleting the items.
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