Disabling Zotero auto-update prompt for managed users

Mike_N

Hello,

I’m looking for a way to disable or suppress the Zotero “update your software” prompt in an enterprise environment.

Our users do not have permission to install software updates themselves, so each prompt results in confusion and additional support requests, as they must contact IT to proceed. Given that Zotero releases frequent minor updates (e.g., 9.x), this prompt appears quite often and is becoming disruptive.

Ideally, we would like to:

- Prevent the update prompt from appearing to end users, and
- Manage updates centrally, applying them only during planned deployments (e.g., major releases)

Is there a supported way to disable or control automatic update notifications in Zotero (e.g., via configuration, policy, or command-line options)?

Thank you for your guidance.

dstillman

Same as Firefox — app.update.auto set to false in prefs.js in the Zotero profile folder. Various other Firefox mechanisms (e.g., registry keys) might also work, but we haven't tested those.

fzi-thomas

Hello,

I'm in the same situation as Mike_N.
Modifying the prefs.js in the profile folder is not an option for us. Is there a way to provide a central config, like the policies.json for Firefox? The \defaults\preferences\prefs.js file worked fine for older versions, but we cant get it to work since the 7.x update.

Thanks in advance.

dstillman

@fzi-thomas: You would have to test, but I would expect most of the Firefox mechanisms (except for those related to the maintenance service, which we don't use) to work for Zotero.