Upgrade StorageBug Report: Zotero 7.0.21 Freezing and Crashing (xul.dll, Exception 0x80000003)
Hi,
I'm not tech savvy and have been using Chat GPT to get Zotero working but now it's telling me to report a bug here; the following are it's words but it sums it up well:
I'm running Zotero 7.0.21 on Windows 11 with the following system:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS
GPU: Radeon 780M (integrated)
RAM: 32 GB
OS: Windows 11 24H2
Zotero Profile: Stored locally (not in cloud sync folders)
Plugins: None enabled (issue occurs in Safe Mode)
❌ Problem:
Zotero often freezes shortly after launching and then crashes. Sometimes it opens successfully for a while, but eventually hangs or becomes unresponsive. I’m also seeing this error in Event Viewer:
Faulting application name: zotero.exe, version: 7.0.21.0
Faulting module name: xul.dll, version: 115.14.0.8979
Exception code: 0x80000003
Fault offset: 0x00000000007bf40a
Zotero crashes even in Safe Mode. I’ve verified that there’s no CPU, RAM, or disk bottleneck when this happens.
Steps I’ve Tried:
Running in Safe Mode (no plugins) → still freezes
Disabling sync → no improvement
Checking database integrity → no errors
Event Viewer shows consistent xul.dll crashes
No other apps freeze at the same time
The below is from the event viewer in case it helps (I've changed the user and computer names. I'm going to switch back to version six now.
I found this in event viewer
Log Name: Application
Source: Application Error
Date: 25/07/2025 22:46:20
Event ID: 1000
Task Category: Application Crashing Events
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: JFRAMEWORK\g
Computer: J-Framework
Description:
Faulting application name: zotero.exe, version: 7.0.21.0, time stamp: 0x66cac921
Faulting module name: xul.dll, version: 115.14.0.8979, time stamp: 0x66abaab4
Exception code: 0x80000003
Fault offset: 0x00000000007bf40a
Faulting process id: 0x4894
Faulting application start time: 0x1DBFDAD04FA7A12
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Zotero\zotero.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\Zotero\xul.dll
Report Id: 04980cd5-16cd-49ee-ac7b-9c60d16ea3a2
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:
Event Xml:
1000
0
2
100
0
0x8000000000000000
19569
Application
J-Framework
zotero.exe
7.0.21.0
66cac921
xul.dll
115.14.0.8979
66abaab4
80000003
00000000007bf40a
0x4894
0x1dbfdad04fa7a12
C:\Program Files\Zotero\zotero.exe
C:\Program Files\Zotero\xul.dll
04980cd5-16cd-49ee-ac7b-9c60d16ea3a2
I'm not tech savvy and have been using Chat GPT to get Zotero working but now it's telling me to report a bug here; the following are it's words but it sums it up well:
I'm running Zotero 7.0.21 on Windows 11 with the following system:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS
GPU: Radeon 780M (integrated)
RAM: 32 GB
OS: Windows 11 24H2
Zotero Profile: Stored locally (not in cloud sync folders)
Plugins: None enabled (issue occurs in Safe Mode)
❌ Problem:
Zotero often freezes shortly after launching and then crashes. Sometimes it opens successfully for a while, but eventually hangs or becomes unresponsive. I’m also seeing this error in Event Viewer:
Faulting application name: zotero.exe, version: 7.0.21.0
Faulting module name: xul.dll, version: 115.14.0.8979
Exception code: 0x80000003
Fault offset: 0x00000000007bf40a
Zotero crashes even in Safe Mode. I’ve verified that there’s no CPU, RAM, or disk bottleneck when this happens.
Steps I’ve Tried:
Running in Safe Mode (no plugins) → still freezes
Disabling sync → no improvement
Checking database integrity → no errors
Event Viewer shows consistent xul.dll crashes
No other apps freeze at the same time
The below is from the event viewer in case it helps (I've changed the user and computer names. I'm going to switch back to version six now.
I found this in event viewer
Log Name: Application
Source: Application Error
Date: 25/07/2025 22:46:20
Event ID: 1000
Task Category: Application Crashing Events
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: JFRAMEWORK\g
Computer: J-Framework
Description:
Faulting application name: zotero.exe, version: 7.0.21.0, time stamp: 0x66cac921
Faulting module name: xul.dll, version: 115.14.0.8979, time stamp: 0x66abaab4
Exception code: 0x80000003
Fault offset: 0x00000000007bf40a
Faulting process id: 0x4894
Faulting application start time: 0x1DBFDAD04FA7A12
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Zotero\zotero.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\Zotero\xul.dll
Report Id: 04980cd5-16cd-49ee-ac7b-9c60d16ea3a2
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:
Event Xml:
1000
0
2
100
0
0x8000000000000000
19569
Application
J-Framework
zotero.exe
7.0.21.0
66cac921
xul.dll
115.14.0.8979
66abaab4
80000003
00000000007bf40a
0x4894
0x1dbfdad04fa7a12
C:\Program Files\Zotero\zotero.exe
C:\Program Files\Zotero\xul.dll
04980cd5-16cd-49ee-ac7b-9c60d16ea3a2
-
adomasvenDo you run any proprietary security software and have you tried testing with it disabled?