Zotero Standalone won't start

tamarmeg

Hi,
My Zotero Standalone program won't start at all.
I can see the computer "thinking" for a moment when I try to launch the program, but no new window or program opens.
I've tried rebooting the computer several times and I've tried uninstalling and re-installing, but neither has helped.
I followed the reporting bugs guidelines but even then, nothing happens: no window opens.
I don't use firefox, so I only have the standalone software (and also a chrome extension).
I downloaded and installed zotfile yesterday, but I have been able to use Zotero afterwards, it's just as of this morning that it hasn't been able to start.
Any suggestions?
Thank you
Tamar

dstillman

To debug this, the easiest thing to do would be to install Firefox and the Zotero for Firefox extension (which will share your existing data directory by default), which would make it easier to generate real-time debug output for the startup. Email any output you can generate to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread.

If you don't want to do that, you can follow the same real-time debug output instructions for Standalone, though they're a little trickier when you can't open Standalone to begin with.

dstillman

version => 4.0.12, platform => Win32, oscpu => Windows NT 6.1; WOW64, locale => en-US, appName => Firefox, appVersion => 24.0

=========================================================

(4)(+0000000): Registering observer for [collection,search,share,group,trash,bucket] in notifier with hash La'

(4)(+0000002): Registering observer for [item-tag,setting] in notifier with hash bP'

Well, wait — this is using debug output logging in Firefox, which suggests that Zotero isn't actually hanging in Firefox. (And this isn't real-time debug output. If it were hanging you wouldn't actually be able to use debug output logging, hence the need for real-time debug output. I should have been clearer that Firefox is only helpful if Zotero for Firefox is hanging too (and, really, then only if it was hanging just when you opened the Zotero pane, the reason being that you could access about:config in Firefox to enable the debug preference without opening the Zotero pane, unlike in Standalone)).

So you'll need to follow the steps regarding generating real-time debug output in Standalone when you can't open it (involving editing prefs.js).

dstillman

Just to be clear, though, you can see your library in Zotero for Firefox now, correct?

tamarmeg

Yes, I can see my library in Firefox.
What do you mean by 'hanging'?
I'll try generating the debugging in Standalone and get back to you.

tamarmeg

I don't know if this helps but I finally got some window opening and an error message titled XULRunner has stopped working that says: A problem has caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.
The only option there was to click "close program" and I did. Nothing else happened.
I should note that when following the instruction of generating debug output I was instructed to past to run the following: C:\Program Files (x86)\Zotero Standalone\zotero.exe, and then select the appropriate file and click Open. Nothing happened after I OKed this command in Run. Even if I manually go to the appropriate folder and click on zotero.exe, nothing happens.
When I tried to following step, of adding " -console", i got the error message described above.

adamsmith

did you follow step 1, i.e. enable debug.log?

tamarmeg

Yes, I did.

AnthCritch

I have exactly the same problem and have tried exactly the same solution, with no change

rider

I have the same problem after I installed zotero's word processor plugin for windows. That plugin is for firefox plugin version. I knew it after the installation.

=================================
I find that if I uninstall zotero completely, i.e. check "Remove my Zotero personal data and customizations" and then reinstall zotero would fix the problem.

dstillman

rider: What problem, exactly? The word processor integration extensions are for Firefox and shouldn't have any effect on Standalone.

rider

Dan: I installed the extension from Standalone "tool->plugin->install add-on from file". After that, I can't start Zotero Standalone, and firefox plugin version works well.
My problem can be fixed if I remove and reinstall Zotero Standalone. And only if I check "Remove my Zotero personal data and customizations" during uninstallation would the problem be fixed.

dstillman

I installed the extension from Standalone "tool->plugin->install add-on from file".

Yeah, don't do that. From the installation page:

This page provides word processor plugins for users of Zotero 3.0 and 4.0 for Firefox. Word processor plugins for Zotero Standalone can be installed from the Cite pane of the Zotero preferences.

shaunkhowell

I had this problem after installing the firefox extension through standalone mistakenly, resolved it by going into the winWord extension folder in my zotero profile Windows 7 ->(C:\Users\<User Name>\AppData\Roaming\Zotero\Zotero\Profiles\<randomstring>\zotero) and deleting new folders which had been made in the process.