Zotero freezing when control/cmd/option keys used (Macbook)

xeclipsed

Hi all,

I'm currently running Zotero v5.0.23 on Macbook (macOS High Sierra 10.13) and have been encountering this strange problem where the use of the control/option/command keys are used, although if I perform the same action via other means it works perfectly.

E.g. if I am in a note and press cmd+c to copy something, Zotero freezes up for about a second (mouse icon changes into the spinning circle/wheel, rest of Zotero becomes unresponsive). Meanwhile, if I right click and select copy it works instantly.

I've reinstalled Zotero to no effect. (Deleted from Applications folder, deleted folder from ~/Library, deleted word plugin and redirected the newly installed Zotero to a new folder so it didn't have access to the previously existing library).

bwiernik

Does this happen with any other apps? If not, can you submit a Debug ID for a sequence where you press the modifier key and the app freezes?
https://www.zotero.org/support/debug_output

(Also, uninstalling almost never fixes problems, so I wouldn’t recommend spending time on that with any future issues.)

xeclipsed

It's not happening with any other apps.

Debug ID: D816199895

bwiernik

Okay, we will have to let the Zotero developers look at the log and see if they see something.

adomasven

@xeclipsed it seems like the debug ID doesn't capture you pressing the shortcut. You should enable debug logging, perform the copying action (make sure it worked and you can paste the citation in a textfield somewhere), then submit the debug log.

dstillman

There's not anything that would be logged here, at least in the case of Cmd-C. (This was Cmd-C, not Cmd-Shift-C for Quick Copy.) There haven't been any other reports of this, so I'd guess that this is due to some strange interaction with something else on the system.

@xeclipsed: What other shortcut keys does this happen for? Does it happen for shortcuts that don't actually trigger anything — e.g., selecting an item in the middle pane and pressing Cmd-U?

xeclipsed

Sorry for the late reply! It was previously happening for anything involving the cmd/option/control keys (e.g. cmd+, for preferences cmd+m, cmd+q etc.)

Since the last update, I ended up installing Windows bootcamp which ended up also being problematic due to time machine, etc. For some reason, ever since, Zotero has been moving smoothly, so I'm guessing that whatever was causing it was fixed as a side-effect during the process.

Thanks to everyone who replied though!