There was an error starting zotero

LKorvers

After re-installing Firefox (37.0.2) due to malware on the computer, I had to re-instal Zotero (4.0.26.4) as well. For some reason, Zotero's butten was not in Firefox toolbar, so I added it according to the instructions on the website. However, when clicking on this button I get the error: There was an error starting zotero. And nothing else happened. When going to add-ons manager > extensions > zotero 4.0.26.4 > options > Sync and filling in the password to get access my account, it doesn't seem to remember the password or something (at least I remember from the time that zotero was working, there were always dots standing in it).

Steps to reproduce:

1 instalation of Firefox 37.0.2
2 instalation of Zotero 4.0.26.4
3 restarting Firefox
4 click on zotero's start up button
5 There was an error starting zotero
6 add-on's menu > zotero 4.0.26.4 > Options > Sync
7 filling in password
8 click on zotero's start up buttion
9 There was an error starting zotero

Browser console report:

Error loading http.js zotero-service.js:241:0
TypeError: Zotero is undefined overlay.js:189:3
Error loading http.js zotero-service.js:241:0
Zotero is undefined preferences_proxies.js:87:0
Zotero is undefined preferences_sync.js:32:0
TypeError: Zotero is undefined preferences.js:30:0
TypeError: Zotero is undefined preferences.xul:1:0

I hope someone can help me with this problem.

dstillman

Oh, so malware may indeed be the cause of this. This is an extremely strange error that we've had a few reports of. We haven't been sure of the cause, but malware seemed likely.

See https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/48463/#Item_2 for a fix that worked for a couple people.

LKorvers

Thank you very much. After de-installing Mozilla Firefox and deleting the Mozilla folder in Program Files, ProgramData and AppData, Zotero worked again. This time I even got the webpage saying thank you for installing zotero.