Bug report - "There was an error starting Zotero" - Not fixed by patch

turkeyphant
Here are the errors as reported by the Firefox Error Console:
Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x8052000e (NS_ERROR_FILE_IS_LOCKED) [mozIStorageService.openDatabase]" nsresult: "0x8052000e (NS_ERROR_FILE_IS_LOCKED)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/db.js :: _getDBConnection :: line 579" data: no]
Source File: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/db.js
Line: 579"
Error: uncaught exception: [Exception... "ServiceManager::GetService returned failure code:" nsresult: "0x80570016 (NS_ERROR_XPC_GS_RETURNED_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/include.js :: :: line 4" data: no]
Error: Zotero has no properties
Source File: chrome://zotero/content/ingester/browser.js
Line: 428
Error: Zotero has no properties
Source File: chrome://zotero/content/ingester/browser.js
Line: 428
Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x8052000e (NS_ERROR_FILE_IS_LOCKED) [mozIStorageService.openDatabase]" nsresult: "0x8052000e (NS_ERROR_FILE_IS_LOCKED)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/db.js :: _getDBConnection :: line 579" data: no]
Source File: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/db.js
Line: 579
Error: uncaught exception: [Exception... "ServiceManager::GetService returned failure code:" nsresult: "0x80570016 (NS_ERROR_XPC_GS_RETURNED_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/include.js :: :: line 4" data: no]
Error: Zotero has no properties
Source File: chrome://zotero/content/itemPane.js
Line: 49
Error: Zotero has no properties
Source File: chrome://zotero/content/overlay.js
Line: 82
Zotero was having troubles showing subitems on a particular reference before I restarted Firefox and this happened. I'd really appreciate a solution.
  • turkeyphant
    Bump.
  • dstillman
    It's hard to say exactly what this is. It could indicate DB corruption, though theoretically that should be a different error (and one handled automatically by Zotero). If you haven't yet, try restarting your computer, in case there's an errant process still accessing the DB.

    If the error persists after restarting, check the Zotero data directory--there should be a zotero.sqlite file and a zotero.sqlite.bak file. After making a backup copy of both (which you might want to do even before restarting if you haven't yet), try manually replacing the main one with the backup and see if that fixes the problem.
  • turkeyphant
    It's hard to say exactly what this is. It could indicate DB corruption, though theoretically that should be a different error (and one handled automatically by Zotero).

    If the error persists after restarting, check the Zotero data directory--there should be a zotero.sqlite file and a zotero.sqlite.bak file. After making a backup copy of both (which you might want to do even before restarting if you haven't yet), try manually replacing the main one with the backup and see if that fixes the problem.
    Seems replacing zotero.sqlite with zotero.sqlite.tmp sorted it out. Thanks very much. For future reference, is this action a general fix for corruption-style errors as it's really annoying not to be able to work on my notes while trying to fix Zotero? It would be nice to know whether something like that would be worth trying first...
  • dstillman
    Generally speaking, if the main DB file is corrupted, Zotero should automatically restore itself from the backup file. It could do the same with the .tmp file for the error you encountered, but I'd first want to determine the conditions under which it could occur and try to reliably reproduce it.

    At any rate, if you get the same error (NS_ERROR_FILE_IS_LOCKED) again in the meantime, your course of action should do the trick.
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