Startup error with Firefox

wbt

I am using the latest version of Zotero on Firefox. Yesterday, while browsing in Firefox, the whole computer crashed (immediate cut to black, then restart) with no obvious reason or evidence in the system logs. Following the crash and recovery, every time I try to open Zotero by pressing the small button in the lower right corner, I get a popup alert "There was an error starting Zotero." Clicking to add a citation in Word, in a document that already has preferences (or not), I see the dialogue to set document preferences and the list of citation styles is empty.

I tried restarting the computer, a couple times.
I tried reinstalling Zotero.
I tried removing the extensions.* files in my Firefox profile directory and restarting Firefox.
I tried removing Zotero (and the Word plugin on FF) and reinstalling the Zotero plugin.

The following errors appear in the console on startup (after clearing it on the prior run), which appear relevant:

Error: Error loading itemTreeView.js
Source File: jar:file:///C:/Users/wbt/AppData/Roaming/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/55guilxf.default/extensions/zotero@chnm.gmu.edu.xpi!/components/zotero-service.js
Line: 252

Error: syntax error
Source File: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/itemTreeView.js
Line: 2283, Column: 13
Source Code: .map((x) => x.trim())

Error: NS_ERROR_XPC_GS_RETURNED_FAILURE: Component returned failure code: 0x80570016 (NS_ERROR_XPC_GS_RETURNED_FAILURE) [nsIJSCID.getService]
Source File: chrome://zotero/content/include.js
Line: 4

Error: Error loading itemTreeView.js
Source File: jar:file:///C:/Users/wbt/AppData/Roaming/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/55guilxf.default/extensions/zotero@chnm.gmu.edu.xpi!/components/zotero-service.js
Line: 252

Error: syntax error
Source File: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/itemTreeView.js
Line: 2283, Column: 13
Source Code: .map((x) => x.trim())

Error: NS_ERROR_XPC_GS_RETURNED_FAILURE: Component returned failure code: 0x80570016 (NS_ERROR_XPC_GS_RETURNED_FAILURE) [nsIJSCID.getService]
Source File: chrome://zotero/content/include.js
Line: 4

The two syntax errors also have dashed green line underneath the source, from the left over to a right-angled up arrow pointing at the tip of the => sign.

I then installed Zotero standalone, while Word and browsers were closed. Standalone starts up without error and shows the default mostly-empty library. I get the same alert popup when trying to open Zotero in Firefox, and now nothing happens when clicking on any of the add-in buttons in Word.

Yes, I'm using an older Firefox (20) but certain other add-ons that are essential for my use case get canceled out/don't work with later versions. This worked fine just yesterday and I'm just trying to get back to that. Any ideas on how?

adamsmith

You can try installing the version that just came out (4.0.21.3 (the .3 being crucial here) but generally Zotero is not going to remain compatible with Firefox 20 and you're exposing yourself and others to significant security risks by running a browser that's no longer receiving security updates.

dstillman

No, the current version of Zotero won't work with Firefox versions earlier than 24, the current Extended Support Release. For this issue in particular it would probably work with Firefox 22 or later, but you should be using either the latest ESR (24) or the latest main version (30). Anything else is unsupported by Mozilla and possibly insecure.