Upgrade StorageZotero process hangs in background on startup in restricted enterprise environment
Hello,
I'm currently attempting to deploy Zotero on Windows workstations within a restricted corporate IT environment, but I'm encountering a silent failure during the initial launch.
Observed Symptoms:
- The zotero.exe process launches successfully and remains active in the background (visible in Task Manager).
- The Graphical User Interface (GUI) never appears.
- There are no application crash prompts or error messages.
- We have checked the Windows Event Viewer and our enterprise Antivirus/EDR logs: there are no alerts, blocked DLLs, or terminated processes.
- For comparison, the exact same executable installs and functions perfectly on a personal computer outside of our corporate network.
Questions:
- What are the strict network prerequisites (Domains, URLs, Ports) that must be whitelisted on our proxy/firewall to allow Zotero to complete its startup sequence?
- Are there any command-line arguments we can use to bypass network checks on startup, or to force a verbose debug log to see exactly where it hangs (e.g., -ZoteroDebugText, -safe-mode)?
- Does the application require any specific folder permissions to local or roaming profiles that differ from standard Windows applications?
Thank you in advance for your assistance.
I'm currently attempting to deploy Zotero on Windows workstations within a restricted corporate IT environment, but I'm encountering a silent failure during the initial launch.
Observed Symptoms:
- The zotero.exe process launches successfully and remains active in the background (visible in Task Manager).
- The Graphical User Interface (GUI) never appears.
- There are no application crash prompts or error messages.
- We have checked the Windows Event Viewer and our enterprise Antivirus/EDR logs: there are no alerts, blocked DLLs, or terminated processes.
- For comparison, the exact same executable installs and functions perfectly on a personal computer outside of our corporate network.
Questions:
- What are the strict network prerequisites (Domains, URLs, Ports) that must be whitelisted on our proxy/firewall to allow Zotero to complete its startup sequence?
- Are there any command-line arguments we can use to bypass network checks on startup, or to force a verbose debug log to see exactly where it hangs (e.g., -ZoteroDebugText, -safe-mode)?
- Does the application require any specific folder permissions to local or roaming profiles that differ from standard Windows applications?
Thank you in advance for your assistance.
https://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_problems#alternative_logging_to_the_terminal Zotero does need full web access (excluding any standard content controls) to function normally, but a network failure shouldn't prevent Zotero from showing the main window at startup.
I tried following your instructions to capture the crash logs using the Windows Command Prompt with the -ZoteroDebug parameter, but it isn't working.
I tried redirecting the output to a text file with the -ZoteroDebugText parameter , and while the file was created on my desktop, it remained completely empty even after Zotero crashed.
I also tried capturing the error outputs and running it directly in the console without a file, but the screen just stays blank with no text generated at all.
Maybe could you let me know if there is a crash dump file automatically saved somewhere in my Zotero folders that I can send you instead?
Thanks you for your time
Best regards.