Issues opening app on Mac after using Windows

f.k.e

I had a Windows account, but got a new computer and have been trying to use Zotero on my mac. I completely deleted my account and made a new one because it simple wouldn't work and I thought that might make it easier to link the database. However, after deleting my account, wiping the desktop app, making a new account and redownloading, I'm still getting the same message:

"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: User/[my name]/Zotero"

I can't get into my preferences or anything, it looks the task bar drop down menus because of the error screen. There are no documents on this computer at all because it's new, so I'm not sure what the issue is.

dstillman

I'm guessing you copied files from the other computer and ended up with incorrect file permissions. The error message means what it says — all files in the Zotero data directory need to be readable and writable by your macOS user account so that Zotero can access them. You can fix that by using File → Get Info on the folder in Finder, but you'll have to look elsewhere for help with that, since we can't provide general OS usage guidance here.

Note that you certainly didn't need to make a new Zotero account, and you should delete this one and switch back to your previous account. That has nothing to do with this.

f.k.e

Unfortunately, I have not yet copied any files and it's still not working so the issue isn't file permissions.

dstillman

I mean, it's definitely permissions or some sort of unusual security software — something is preventing Zotero from reading from or writing to its data directory. This would never happen on a new, freshly installed macOS installation. I can't tell you what you did, but if you don't expect to have any existing Zotero data on this computer, you should just delete the Zotero folder in your home folder.

f.k.e

It is quite literally a brand new mac, out of the box! That's what's so confounding about it. I'll try that, though.

f.k.e

I resolved it by simply factory resetting the computer and not using the auto migrate feature that the macs have. That must've imported some weird settings, even though I didn't migrate the zotero application or any related files. Anyhow, problem solved!