Zotero freezes when click on sync button

melew

Version 4.029.17. For the last week, when I open Zotero, it syncs for a minute and then I get the red ! saying "Conflicts have suspended automatic syncing. Click the sync button to resolve them." When I click the sync button, Zotero freezes and I get the "Not responding" message. Not sure what is happening. I am part of a several groups all owned by one owner. Owner has unlimited storage.

dstillman

If you let it go it will probably finish, but you should also upgrade to Zotero 5.0.

melew

Ok, I'll update to Zotero 5. I do let it run entirely every time and with other software shut down on computer. It syncs, stops, and then when I manually sync, it freezes instantly.

dstillman

Freezing is normal in 4.0 for large syncs, though. I'm not sure what you mean by letting it run entirely. The point is that it should become unfrozen if you let it run long enough.

5.0 won't freeze in the same way.

melew

Version 5 is working well. It found the 5 files that needed to be resolved. Version 4 wasn't finding those files so it would freeze and run the hourglass indefinitely.

Another question regarding Zotero connector. When I got to download in Firefox, why does it say, "Firefox prevented this site from asking you to install software on you computer?" And if I saw "allow", it asks if I want to allow "Access to data on all websites." Does that mean Zotero is accessing data even on sites that I run as private? Just curious how this works before I install as I work in a university with tight security and I know this Q will come up in our lab as folks download Version 5.

Thanks!

dstillman

See Connector Permissions for an explanation. There's no difference here from Zotero 4.0, which also had full access — the Connector just uses the new Firefox extension framework, which has a more fine-grained permissions system with clearer warnings.

Does that mean Zotero is accessing data even on sites that I run as private?

In Firefox, the Connector runs as usual in private-browsing mode, but as explained on the linked page, nothing is saved unless you explicitly click the save button, and then it's only saved and synced according to how you've configured it.

Chrome doesn't run an extension in private mode at all unless you explicitly enable it in the Extensions pane.

(If you do save in private-browsing mode and it fails, and the option to report translator failures is enabled, the Connector will currently report the error (anonymously) to zotero.org as it would normally. That's a regression from Zotero for Firefox that we'll fix.)