Loading items list... doesn't load

Kny

I’m using Zotero for Firefox on a PPC G5 with TenFourFox. I used Zotero for a few minutes yesterday (1/13). This morning I tried to use it again, but none of my items loaded in the middle pane. Instead it showed :”Loading items list...” My library and its subfolders were in the left pane, but when I clicked on any of them, the message in the middle pane changed to “An error has occurred. Please restart TenFour Fox. I did that to no effect.

I was getting an alert to update TenFourFox which I always do immediately, so I updated to 31.4.0, but that made no difference. Zotero for Firefox had updated to 4.0.25.1. I checked Zotero support pages which showed that update was put out 1/13/15, and that it already had been replaced today (1/14) with 4.0.25.2.

In Zotero prefs I confirmed that the Data Directory Location was correct. In TenFourFox Help>Troubleshooting Information I confirmed that TenFourFox was using the correct Profile.

I don’t use Zotero sync. I have a disk clone that was updated a couple days ago, so I very carefully replaced “zotero.sqlite” and “storage” in the active Profile with the same items from the clone, following Zotero instructions on Restoring your Zotero library from a backup. I opened TenFourFox, then Zotero, but no change. Zotero was now updated to 4.0.25.2.

It looks like maybe the Zotero update yesterday broke things here. Any suggestions on what to try next? Should I reset TenFourFox and start all over? Or could my database be corrupted?

dstillman

We can do much for you on TenFourFox, but if you can provide a Report ID I can take a look.

Kny

Report ID: 1978125934

Thanks

dstillman

[JavaScript Error: "Zotero.Utilities.trim(...).normalize is not a function" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/search.js" line: 117}]

Yeah, this works in standard Firefox 31 ESR. If it's not working for you, that's an issue with TenFourFox.

Kny

OK. I think I'll try reset in TFF, create a new profile and then copy “zotero.sqlite” and “storage” from my clone, see if it works. After all, this has been working fine, upgrade after upgrade, for a couple years. I assume there is no change in the database itself, so even though it was created with 4.0.24.1, it should run OK in 4.0.25.2 - if everything else were OK?

dstillman

No, there's no reason a new profile should be any different. Zotero 4.0.25 uses a new function that was introduced in Firefox 31. If it's not working for you, the TFF version of Firefox 31 is incomplete.

adamsmith

You should report this to Ten-Four Fox. In the meantime, you can install the last functioning (for you) Zotero version from
https://download.zotero.org/extension/zotero-4.0.24.1.xpi
and disable auto-updating for it. It's not ideal and at some point other things will start breaking, but for now that's a well-functioning version.

Kny

Is that auto-updating of translators in prefs>general?

adamsmith

no, that's auto-updating of the Firefox add-on somewhere in the about:add-ons settings of Firefox. You should probably keep translators auto-updating.

Kny

Oh, right. OK, I'm back to normal with 4.0.24.1, with auto-updating of add-ons turned off in TFF. And TFF is up to date at 31.4.0. There is an open thread on the TFF forums about the apparent conflict between the latest versions of TFF and Zotero, and I added my two cents, but it doesn't look promising. So thanks for your help and the temporary fix.

adamsmith

You should provide the exact wording of Dan's post to TFF, that's why he provided the detail he did--contrary to what you say on their forums, he didn't just say that it works in regular FF31 so it's a TFF issue, but specifies which function, specifically, appears to be missing in TFF31. If they're going to fix this, it'll be based on this (it's also unrelated to the other issue in the thread).
Also, always a good idea to cross-link related support threads. The TFF thread is https://tenfourfox.tenderapp.com/discussions/problems/1435-tff-310-has-killed-zotero

Kny

Adam, sorry for any misunderstanding that I caused, but I just didn't understand the significance of Dan's information, specifically what function he was referring to. I'll add all of his comments, as well as a link to this thread.