Zotero not working with any article databases today

eshields

As a university librarian, I show Zotero to faculty and students. Zotero was working with Chrome on Monday, but today the icon has not been showing up in search results, either at the group or individual article level, on certain machines. Around noon, I couldn't get it to work on a research clinic computer or my office computer in either Chrome or Firefox. Right now, it is working on the machine in the research clinic (running Windows 7), on my MS Surface Pro (running Windows 8), but not on my office computer (running Windows 7).

Can anyone give me any suggestions? I have re-installed on all machines and re-started the machines. As the semester has just started, I have lots of people coming to me for advice, and Zotero is normally my top recommendation for a citation manager. Thanks.

adamsmith

The first step is to run through these:
http://www.zotero.org/support/troubleshooting_translator_issues
I'd start by making sure that all versions of the plugin as well as the Zotero Standalone version are up to date, that's frequently the source of this problem.

eshields

I uninstalled Skype, and that seems to have fixed the problems I was having yesterday. Zotero worked on my GRA's computer today. However, it's only the freestanding version that I can use (or see); the icon for the integrated Firefox version disappeared several months ago, and I haven't been able to figure out why. I have checked that Zotero appears in Firefox extensions; I always install Firefox updates when they come out; and I have re-installed Zotero several times, so I am running the latest version. I searched the forum and someone else was told it must be his server. Can anyone tell me what action might have been taken at the server level that would cause this? Although that would not explain why integrated Zotero is working on my GRAs computer and not on mine. Thanks.

adamsmith

we wouldn't tell someone "it's his server" without a very specific error message and it's unlikely to be the case for you.
Once you've run through steps 1-11, note the exact instructions under 12. on that page - if you follow these you'll provide us with more (and more helpful) information to troubleshoot this.

aurimas

the icon for the integrated Firefox version disappeared several months ago, and I haven't been able to figure out why.

This sounds like your Add-on bar in Firefox is hidden (you should still see the URL bar icon though). It can be enabled under Firefox Menu -> Options -> Add-on Bar

adamsmith

oh right - if Aurimas is understanding you correctly and Zotero doesn't show up at the bottom of the browser, obviously you can't produce error reports. Follow his advice and if that doesn't help:
http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/no_status_bar_icon