MacOS Sequoia 15.1.1 and Zotero ver 7 Not Loading

SThomas99

Running Zotero 6.0.37 and installed the new version 7.0.9 with a replace option but got the error message below. The data directory is on a NAS and has been for quite some time.

1. The folder is permanently loaded at startup and is visible on my desktop and Finder can access anything in the Zotero folder. All permissions on the NAS show full read/write and have not changed.

2. Reinstalling ver. 6.0.37 with the replace option and it works perfectly, indicating to me something missing in ver. 7. Searching both this forum and elsewhere only suggested the following possibility based on the new tougher Sequoia security:

"Local Network Privacy is new in Sequoia. The developer would have to update the app with a "multicast entitlement" so that it can be granted access by the user. You can't do it yourself."

Could this be what is missing? Any ideas appreciated. Thanks.

==================
There was an error starting Zotero.

You can report this problem in the Zotero Forums.

[Exception... "Could not open connection to /Volumes/Zotero/Data Directory/zotero.sqlite: 2153971714" nsresult: "0x80630002 (NS_ERROR_STORAGE_IOERR)" location: "JS frame :: resource://gre/modules/Sqlite.sys.mjs :: openConnection/</< :: line 1336" data: no]
openConnection/</<@resource://gre/modules/Sqlite.sys.mjs:1336:23
From previous event:
Zotero.DBConnection.prototype._getConnectionAsync@chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/db.js:1197:4

dstillman

Be sure to link to things you're quoting. That Stack Overflow answer, and the Apple documentation linked from there, doesn't have anything to do with this. This is just a disk operation and isn't related to Local Network Privacy — the system virtualizes access to a mounted disk. (macOS shows a one-time permissions prompt the first time an app accesses a network volume, but an app doesn't have to do anything to enable that.)

I can reproduce the above error trying to open an SQLite database on an SMB share in Zotero 7, but there's no general access problem — Zotero can successfully write to a file on the same share. We'll see if we can figure out why this is failing, but storing the data directory on a network share has always been hit or miss, since network shares don't necessarily behave like normal disks.

For now, you'd need to move the data directory back to the local disk.

SThomas99

Thank you for your response although I am still confused why v6 works perfect on the NAS for years and installing v7 fails and I have reinstalled overwrites several times with the same settings in the Mac and NAS so my reasoning is that there must be a difference in the coding in v7. Not being a programmer I could not even compare the two versions. Maybe future versions will solve this phenomenon.

The local option is not viable for us as my wife and I constantly do joint work and use the same Zotero collection for the same projects (but not at the same time). Turning on an unoccupied local machine just to get at Zotero was not an option when the NAS is running 24/7 was the only economic, speedy, and secure solution. We’ll just leave the Mac running permanently with v6. Thanks again.

dstillman

Zotero is based on Firefox, and something apparently changed in the SQLite implementation in Firefox between the version used in Zotero 6 and the much newer version used in Zotero 7.

I've done a bit more testing and confirmed that this is indeed an issue with locking on the network share. Opening an SQLite database from a network share fails in the latest version of Firefox as well, but it works with options that cause it to ignore proper locking of the database file.

We'll continue investigating, but again, network shares have always been risky for any SQLite-database-backed program due to locking issues.

The local option is not viable for us as my wife and I constantly do joint work and use the same Zotero collection for the same projects (but not at the same time).

Perhaps you're purposely avoiding using Zotero syncing, but just to note, this is exactly what groups are for. You don't need to host the database on a network share, carefully avoid simultaneous access, and risk database corruption just to share a library.

SThomas99

Thank you. We do not need to simultaneously use Zotero (day vs night usage). There still is a small problem now that version 6 is running on the Mac in that it only sometimes retrieves complete information from a source compared to previously. I noted that on the network share a strange duplication that may be the problem wher there are Zotero 2022 folders (v6) and now the same folders within the Data Directory but all 2024 latest dates (Pic1 vs Pic2). Any ideas?

https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u9097795/7f5n9gyzg9cj37h56rrd.png
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u9097795/tk6frt6ug5wdt4zokfvs.png

dstillman

Those are just different folders. A folder named "Data Directory" isn't a thing in Zotero — that's just something you created. The only folder that matters is the one where Zotero is actually pointing, which appears to be the "Data Directory" subfolder, based on those timestamps. You should delete the older stuff to avoid confusion.