SyntaxError at start of Zotero

AmandaUCSC

I downloaded and installed Zotero 5, really excited to use it... but I can't. When it starts up I get the error message: "SyntaxError: unterminated string literal." My options are to download an update or end, but the update button says there are no new updates, so my only option is to end Zotero.

Help?

LiborA

Can you provide more information (for example OS?)

AmandaUCSC

Windows 10 Home, 64-bit. No previous install of Zotero.

LiborA

Try to reinstall Zotero, please.

AmandaUCSC

Just did. Same error message.

AmandaUCSC

Does it make a difference that my default system language is German? I plan to change that once I'm able to do so, but since it won't even let me in I currently cannot.

LiborA

No, my default system language is Czech and there is no problem with this.

dstillman

Hey Amanda — can you copy the full error message from that window and paste it here between <code> tags?

I'm not seeing an issue here with the German locale, but I'll keep investigating. (@LiborA, there could easily be an issue with one locale and not with another.) You may be able to fix it in the meantime by opening your Zotero profile directory, opening the prefs.js file in a text editor, and adding these two lines:

user_pref("general.useragent.locale", "en-US");
user_pref("intl.locale.matchOS", false);

…and then starting Zotero again.

AmandaUCSC

Unfortunately that *is* the full error message in the window.

I'll try the other solution.

dstillman

Can you take a screenshot of the window, upload it somewhere (Dropbox, imgur), and post a link here?

AmandaUCSC

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x33uzuhub90gyex/Capture.JPG?dl=0

dstillman

Could you try to submit a Debug ID for this?

https://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_problems#reporting_startup_errors

AmandaUCSC

Well, that is not going to be very helpful unfortunately. Check this out:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6pdkomf8yvw1evu/Capture.JPG?dl=0

dstillman

OK, how about with -jsconsole instead? That should pop up an error console that might have something more informative.

dstillman

I assume you figured this out, but we tracked this down to a corrupt Firefox preferences file. It should be fixed in the latest 5.0 Beta. If you install that, you can reinstall 5.0.18 after upgrading.