Safari connector on Mac

alineraub

My Zotero connector flashes for just a millisecond when I click on the checkbox in safari settings>extensions but the little Z icon does not stay. I have tried absolutely everything short of uninstalling safari and reinstalling it.
I deleted Zotero and reinstalled it, I shut down my laptop, I restarted safari, I deleted all other extensions, I deleted the safari caches, what can I do now? I need Zotero for my research :(

dstillman

What macOS, Zotero, and Safari versions?

You should restart your computer after deleting Zotero from Applications, before reinstalling it.

alineraub

MacOS 15.1.1
Zotero 7.0.10
Safari 18.1.1

I also tried restarting my computer after deleting Zotero, it still doesn't work

alineraub

Can you help me or not?

dstillman

If you open Terminal from Spotlight, paste in this command, and press Return, what's the output?

codesign -vvvv /Applications/Zotero.app/

alineraub

prepared:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/liblgpllibs.dylib
--validated:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/liblgpllibs.dylib
--prepared:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/libfreebl3.dylib
--validated:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/libfreebl3.dylib
--prepared:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/libmozavutil.dylib
--validated:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/libmozavutil.dylib
--prepared:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/libosclientcerts.dylib
--validated:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/libosclientcerts.dylib
--prepared:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/libmozglue.dylib
--validated:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/libmozglue.dylib
--prepared:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/libsoftokn3.dylib
--validated:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/libsoftokn3.dylib
--prepared:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/plugin-container.app
--validated:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/plugin-container.app
--prepared:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/XUL
--validated:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/XUL
--prepared:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/libipcclientcerts.dylib
--validated:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/libipcclientcerts.dylib
--prepared:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/libnssckbi.dylib
--validated:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/libnssckbi.dylib
--prepared:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/libmozavcodec.dylib
--validated:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/libmozavcodec.dylib
--prepared:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/libnss3.dylib
--validated:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/libnss3.dylib
--prepared:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/updater.app
--validated:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/updater.app
--prepared:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/PlugIns/ZoteroSafariExtension.appex
--validated:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/PlugIns/ZoteroSafariExtension.appex
--prepared:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/minidump-analyzer
--validated:/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/minidump-analyzer
/Applications/Zotero.app/: valid on disk
/Applications/Zotero.app/: satisfies its Designated Requirement

alineraub

Is there anything else I can do?

dstillman

That output looks fine, so there's no obvious problem here. Try disabling all your other Safari extensions.

You should also update to the latest version of Sequoia if you haven't yet.

alineraub

I have all the latest versions of everything, I don't have any other safari extensions, is there anything else I can do?

alineraub

[Merged from separate thread — D.S.]

I’ve installed the Zotero desktop app (5.0.148) and the Safari connector, but when I enable it in Safari > Settings > Extensions, it briefly flashes on and then disappears.
I’ve tried:
- Fully removing and reinstalling Zotero
- Clearing Safari plugin caches
- Running pluginkit to deregister and re-register the extension
- Confirmed Zotero is accepted by Gatekeeper (spctl shows notarized)
Console shows error:
__plugin endUsing for '...' returned error [...] endUsingRequest: called with unknown/expired request
Pluginkit sees the extension:
org.zotero.SafariExtensionApp.SafariExtension(5.0.148)
…but it’s not active (no + flag).
This appears to be a compatibility issue with Safari 18.4 and Sequoia’s handling of .appex extensions.

dstillman

Please don't create duplicate threads for the same issue. It just makes it harder for us to help you. I've merged your post back into this thread.

alineraub

Right sorry, I thought it would be easier

dstillman

I'm not sure why you think this is a compatibility issue with macOS 15.4 when you were seeing the same issue in macOS 15.1.1? The extension is working for me in 15.4.

I'm afraid we don't have much else to suggest here. You can look for errors — for ZoteroSafariExtension, Safari, or other system components — in the Console app. If you can't figure it out, your best option would be to use another browser with a less-buggy extension framework.

alineraub

So I tried:
- Fully clearing out Zotero and reinstalling it.
- Removing the quarantine flag and cleaning extended attributes from the app bundle using xattr.
- Disabling Gatekeeper and adjusting macOS security settings.
- Moving the app into /Applications and re-registering the Safari extension with pluginkit.
What happens after that is the extension is active for a couple of seconds but then a window pops up to verify Zotero and the extension disappears.
Is this an issue with Mac or with Zotero?

dstillman

Debugging is fine, but to be clear, you shouldn't need to do any of these things that we don't recommend. The plugin should just work without changing quarantine flags or running pluginkit on the command line.

a window pops up to verify Zotero

What window?

Again, you can look in Console to try to find a relevant error, but the plugin obviously works in general with a standard install of the app. There was an issue previously where certain app updates could leave some old files behind, resulting in an invalid signature on the .app that would break the plugin, but that's been resolved, and you already confirmed that the signature on the .app is valid (and it would be on a new install anyway).