Upgrade StorageSerious Problems in Word - Zotero is Deeply Flawed, Unreliable
As a student at George Mason University, I'm deeply disappointed that this software is being relied upon by professors at GMU. It's completely unstable on the mac OS, the forums are flooded with unresolved issues. Every response seems to be "update to the latest version of Zotero", which obviously does little to resolve anything.
I installed Zotero on my sister's macbook pro which was at the time, running Yosemite. However, she updated to the latest El Capitan, and Zotero is pretty much useless. She's also using Word 2016. I installed Zotero, both the desktop stand alone version, as well as all the plugins (Firefox, Safari, Chrome...) but when I go to Word 2016 to insert a citation using the "add-on" menu, Zotero crashes! Every. Single. Time.
So, here are the steps that I will be asked to go through, surely by some Zotero developer:
1. Yes, she's running the latest version of Zotero.
2. Yes, I uninstalled/reinstalled.
3. Yes, I even reset the zotero data so all her citations are gone.
4. Yes, she is logged in and supposedly (synced).
Here's why I say "supposedly". When I input her login info, zotero ALWAYS says "login failed" no matter what, that ridiculous yellow triangle with exclamation point never goes away. -- And the username and password are correct.
Here's my question to the devs, is Zotero is compatible with El Capitan? And why is the login/sync so terribly awkward? It never seems to actually work.
As clever as this application could be, no wonder hardly anyone outside of graduate level academia has heard of it-- because it's too unstable to rave about.
I installed Zotero on my sister's macbook pro which was at the time, running Yosemite. However, she updated to the latest El Capitan, and Zotero is pretty much useless. She's also using Word 2016. I installed Zotero, both the desktop stand alone version, as well as all the plugins (Firefox, Safari, Chrome...) but when I go to Word 2016 to insert a citation using the "add-on" menu, Zotero crashes! Every. Single. Time.
So, here are the steps that I will be asked to go through, surely by some Zotero developer:
1. Yes, she's running the latest version of Zotero.
2. Yes, I uninstalled/reinstalled.
3. Yes, I even reset the zotero data so all her citations are gone.
4. Yes, she is logged in and supposedly (synced).
Here's why I say "supposedly". When I input her login info, zotero ALWAYS says "login failed" no matter what, that ridiculous yellow triangle with exclamation point never goes away. -- And the username and password are correct.
Here's my question to the devs, is Zotero is compatible with El Capitan? And why is the login/sync so terribly awkward? It never seems to actually work.
As clever as this application could be, no wonder hardly anyone outside of graduate level academia has heard of it-- because it's too unstable to rave about.
https://www.zotero.org/support/forum_guidelines#etiquette
Once you've read that and perhaps rethought your approach here, some notes and questions: What do you mean by "crashes"? We need a Report ID for any problems, and we need exact versions of other relevant software (e.g., Word). Saying you have the "latest version" isn't helpful.
No one recommends this, and in fact it's strongly discouraged, including in the pane itself. "Login failed" isn't a string that appears in the Zotero client, and a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark isn't used for password errors. See Reporting Problems — we need Report IDs and exact messages. For login issues, a Debug ID for a sync attempt may be helpful.
By the latest version of Zotero, I mean as if: she completely uninstalled the software and re-installed it from the website. Again, simply stated, the latest download. In order to get the Report ID I will have to re-create the problem which I can't do at the moment because my sister is currently in the process of writing her paper.
My sister doesn't really care that her citations are gone, because she wasn't able to insert them in the paper anyway. So that's the least of her problems.
I'm sure you know what I mean when it says "login failed" that may not be the exact message, but there a several other posters who mentioned issues with login. So, it's not as if this problem doesn't exist. But, if you want it put simply: She can't login with her correct login info.
I wish these message boards allowed attachments, it would be much easier to show through screenshots what I am seeing on my end.
But here is what the exact words say: "The Zotero Sync server did not accept your username and password. Please check that you have entered your zotero.org login information correctly in the zotero sync preferences."
This message appears when I click on the red circle with an exclamation point in the right-hand corner of Zotero.
While I would love to go through all the many, many troubleshooting steps to debug, I really don't have the time. I'm a graduate student, I have three major projects coming up, I work, I'm a teaching assistant, and I live 45 minutes from campus so I commute and I don't have time to deconstruct the issues of zotero.
I'm not a computer guru, but I'm not a novice either. I sat in zotero "class" and other students had similar issues, so the software is far from user friendly. I'd love to see a version that runs much soother on Macs. I don't mean to come off as harsh, but just because the developers don't see the problem on their end, doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist on the user end.
I will try to get a Report ID for you.
Also, if we're asking you questions, you can either A) assume that we're deliberately wasting your time or B) assume that we know what we're doing and are trying avoid common sources of imprecision (e.g., different uses of "crash", ambiguous error messages) so that we can help you quickly.
Anyway, I'm done here. If your sister would like to post and follow the very basic reporting guidelines, we'd be happy to help her.
By the way, I've already read the post guidelines, I read it weeks ago in the zotero class. So, that's why I didn't need to read them, again.
The "pages of troubleshooting" are a request for two pieces of information that take a few seconds to provide (which is why almost everyone provides them in their initial posts): a Report ID (or Debug ID in the case of the syncing issue) and an exact error message. So far, we don't know what versions of anything your sister is running, and we don't know the actual messages she's receiving. (No, it did not "literally" say "Zotero crashed/quit", and we can't do anything with that.)
That said, you must follow the instructions for reporting problems (Dan's link above). I have used Zotero in El Capitan and the previous several versions of the Mac OS with no or very minor problems. When I have had problems I have had help here in the form of clear instructions about tracking down what might be wrong and what to do to resolve the issue.
Although I remember the pressure of being a graduate student, that stress does not give license to be rude and obnoxious. Clearly, if you really read the guidelines for posting to the forums, you are ignoring those rules. By intentionally violating the guidelines concerning civility, you make it difficult for any of the volunteers here to help you.
I have worked with literally hundreds of graduate and undergraduate students over the past few years to show them the basics of how to avoid plagiarism, cite sources, find sources, and keep order to their collections of documents. Many have used other bib management systems including the commercial industry leader. I regularly hear how much better they like Zotero over their previous software. More than half of the students use Macs.
If Zotero is not working for you there is something about your computer that is different and that must be identified before your problems can be identified.
Here's the information you requested.
Report ID – 244466000
[JavaScript Error: "Invalid username or password" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/sync.js" line: 2595}]
[JavaScript Error: "Invalid username or password" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/error.js" line: 38}]
[JavaScript Error: "1445822284393 Toolkit.Telemetry ERROR TelemetryStorage::loadAbortedSessionPing - error removing ping: PingReadError JS Stack trace: PingReadError@TelemetryStorage.jsm:80:15 < TelemetryStorageImpl.loadPingFile<@TelemetryStorage.jsm:1440:13" {file: "resource://gre/modules/Log.jsm" line: 749}]
1445828832308 addons.update-checker WARN Update manifest for zoteroMacWordIntegration@zotero.org did not contain an updates property
1445828832340 addons.update-checker WARN Update manifest for zoteroOpenOfficeIntegration@zotero.org did not contain an updates property
[JavaScript Error: "1445832243572 Toolkit.Telemetry ERROR TelemetryReportingPolicy::get dataSubmissionPolicyNotifiedDate - Invalid date stored." {file: "resource://gre/modules/Log.jsm" line: 749}]
[JavaScript Error: "1445832243572 Toolkit.Telemetry ERROR TelemetryReportingPolicy::get dataSubmissionPolicyNotifiedDate - Invalid date stored." {file: "resource://gre/modules/Log.jsm" line: 749}]
[JavaScript Error: "TypeError: p.win is undefined" {file: "http://d36wtdrdo22bqa.cloudfront.net/mngr/mtm.js" line: 83}]
[JavaScript Error: "Error: Script error
http://requirejs.org/docs/errors.html#scripterror" {file: "http://a.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/fastcompany/static/sites/js/201410/vendor/require.js" line: 8}]
version => 4.0.28.8, platform => MacIntel, oscpu => Intel Mac OS X 10.10, locale => en-US, appName => Zotero, appVersion => 4.0.28.8, extensions => Zotero Word for Mac Integration (3.5.12.SA.4.0.28.8, extension), Zotero LibreOffice Integration (3.5.10.SA.4.0.28.8, extension), Silverlight Plug-In (5.1.40416.0, plugin), Default Browser Helper (600, plugin), QuickTime Plug-in 7.7.3 (7.7.3, plugin), SharePoint Browser Plug-in (14.5.7, plugin), Shockwave Flash (19.0.0.226, plugin)
I am just another thankful Zotero user. And I was a graduate student until recently. Your title and the entire first paragraph comes across as harsh and sweeping generalizations of how disastrous Zotero is. Most of us disagree and some of us like Zotero so much, we contribute actual $ (by buying space) even though there isn't a requirement to do that.
The people commenting above know what they are doing. You will benefit by internalizing that they mean well and are the shortest route to the solution of your issue.
(Also, despite findhopefilm's claims, all recent access from the account appears to have been from Yosemite (10.10), not El Capitan (10.11) — which of course is why we ask for Report IDs.)
We can't do anything about the Word/crashing issue without more info, starting with the exact error message and Word version.