Total Malfunction

carolyneroberts

I was in the middle of typing a note, went to hit underline, and hit another button on my keyboard instead. I don't know which. All of a sudden, the library disappeared, the plus signs by the collections are gone, and when I scroll into the blank space where the library should be a few items reappear when my mouse hovers there and then they disappear. I have restarted my computer 3 times now, looked through preferences to see if I can change anything, and still the situation remains. I've not had any problems like this before. I made an error report and the number is 2019810298.

Thanks!

dstillman

Make a backup of your Zotero data directory immediately just in case, but your data is almost certainly still there.

Disable your other Firefox extensions and see if the problem goes away.

carolyneroberts

I backed up my data directory, and also there are no problems with the online library collection, which even has the new information in that note I was working on right before the meltdown. I disabled all my other Firefox extensions and the problem remains. What do you think I should try next?

dstillman

1) Check your database integrity in the Advanced pane of the Zotero preferences.

2) Delete localstore.rdf, which stores window settings, from your Firefox profile and restart Firefox.

3) Try a new Firefox profile, and temporarily point it to your old Zotero data directory from the Advanced pane of the Zotero preferences.

dstillman

If the problem persists, take a screenshot, upload it to a free file-sharing site (e.g., imageshack.us), and post the link here.

carolyneroberts

I just discovered something else which may be useful. I usually have zotero as a pinned tab. I decided to click on toggle, and when zotero appeared on the bottom half of a webpage, it looked like everything was back to normal. But when I sent it back to view in a tab, it all disappeared and was bizarre looking again.

dstillman

Provide a screenshot of the tab, then.

carolyneroberts

I took screenshots and loaded them onto image shack. One shows zotero in toggle mode where you can see that the plus signs are beside the folders, the far left pane is functioning, etc. The other shows the malfunctioning version in tab mode - only a tiny bit of the library shows, the far left pane is greyed out. When I hover my mouse over the blank space I get flashes of additional text that disappears almost immediately. Unfortunately, I couldn't capture that aspect through the screen shot.

The image shack account that I just set up is: http://profile.imageshack.us/user/carolyneroberts/

Thanks.

carolyneroberts

So, I just solved the problem - it seems someone had a similar problem back in April. I hit control + and it looked normal again. Sorry for all the trouble. What are the control + and control - keys supposed to do? It's all very curious but I'm pretty computer illiterate!

Rintze

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Page Zoom

I can confirm that these shortcuts affect the Zotero pane when it is in tab mode, which is probably undesired.

dstillman

Page zoom. It's an unexpected side effect of being in a tab that those have an effect on the Zotero interface, but they doesn't cause any trouble for me—they just resize things.

carolyneroberts

Thanks so much for all the help! I can breathe easily again...