Right click not working in zotero

mac_coinnich
Usually when I highlight a group of pdfs and right click them, I get a bunch of options that are basic to the functionality of zotero. For the last two days, zotero doesn't seem to recognize a right click at all, and the program is more sluggish than it has been, taking longer to load items. I am using Windows 7.
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  • mac_coinnich
    Uninstalling and reinstalling Zotero seems to have fixed it.
  • mac_coinnich
    It's happening again. I uninstalled and reinstalled zotero, and it fixed it temporarily before the same issue occurring right after.
  • mac_coinnich
    Does anyone else ever have this problem?
  • dstillman
    I don't believe there've been other reports of this.

    Does this happen if you select individual PDFs, or only multiple? If the latter, can you narrow it down to specific PDFs that cause it to fail? Can you provide a Debug ID for right-clicking not working?
  • mac_coinnich
    Right click stops working entirely on highlighted entries. I just enabled debug output logging, tried right clicking again, and it stopped working. The debug ID given was as follows.

    D1045665434.
  • dstillman
    Nothing helpful in there, I'm afraid.

    Does restarting Zotero fix it?
  • mac_coinnich
    It has in the past, as has uninstalling it and reinstalling it. Right now it's largely non-functional. The right click window finally popped up just now after restarting it, but it took several minutes to appear.
  • dstillman
    For a single item, or for a large number of items?
  • mac_coinnich
    The lag was for about 60 items this last time. Other times the right click function hasn't worked at all, even for individual items. It has been sporadic and sometimes a reboot of my computer doesn't seem to make much of a difference.

    Apologies that I can't be more helpful.
  • dstillman
    Is your Zotero data directory in the default location on your primary drive?
  • mac_coinnich
    Even when right click is working, function is sporadic. Right now I can right click again, but 'remove from collection' isn't working.
  • mac_coinnich
    No. My Zotero data directory is on my D drive as my C drive is a ssd with limited capacity.
  • dstillman
    That sounds like a more severe problem with Zotero's functioning on your system.

    If you disable auto-sync (if you're using syncing), close Zotero, create a temporary directory on your C drive, copy the zotero.sqlite file there, and point Zotero at that directory, do you still have trouble?
  • mac_coinnich
    I haven't been using syncing at all and it is turned off. Do you want me to point my data directory to the C drive, and is there any particular temporary directory I should be using? I don't have enough room on my c drive for my data directory.
  • mac_coinnich
    Zotero itself is also installed on my D drive as I try and keep my C drive as stripped down as possible.
  • dstillman
    edited December 30, 2019
    I'm not saying to copy the data directory — just to put a copy of the zotero.sqlite file itself in some empty directory on the C drive and point Zotero there as a debugging step. You can switch it back to continue working.
  • mac_coinnich
    I moved the zotero.sqlite file to the c drive. Remove from collection still doesn't work, and zotero can't find the pdfs, which I assumed would happen.
  • dstillman
    edited December 30, 2019
    Can you provide a Debug ID for "Remove Item from Collection" not working?
  • dstillman
    And what about the right-click menu? Is that still not working reliably?
  • mac_coinnich
    Here's the Debug ID for "Remove Item from Collection" not working

    D1550480423

    The right click seems to be working otherwise for merging.
  • dstillman
    So you're saying the right-click menu is now appearing properly all the time when using the database on the C drive?
    Item 52164 not a child of collection 9
    I'd guess that you have Tools → "Show Items from Subcollections" enabled and are trying to remove an item from a collection when it only exists in a subcollection. We'll fix it to disable the menu option in that case. To remove the item, you need to go into the subcollection where the item actually exists (which you can reveal easily).
  • mac_coinnich
    Yes, when the database is on the c drive, the right click seems to work.

    I found the show items from subcollections tick box and unticked it. I either ticked it on myself or it defaults to ticked on when reinstalled. Thank you for the subcollection tip as well.
  • mac_coinnich
    What do I do now, if the database only works on the c drive but all the pdfs are on the d drive? Is there a potential fix that allows me to keep the database on the d drive?
  • dstillman
    If you switch back to the database on the D drive, does the problem of the delayed context menu return?
  • dstillman
    I take it the D drive is an HDD and the C drive is an SSD?
  • mac_coinnich
    Yes, the D drive is an HDD and C drive is an SSD.

    Switching back to the database on the D drive solved the delayed/broken right click context menu at first, but the latency seems to be coming back. I'll keep an eye on it.
  • mac_coinnich
    Thank you and Happy New Year!
  • mac_coinnich
    The problem is back again. This time it kicked in after I reopened Zotero after it crashed after it automatically got a bunch of metadata for newly added pdfs.

    Debug ID: 1951218236

    Imported PDFs [Drag and drop]
    Zotero ran metadata
    Zotero crashed
    Zotero restarted
    Right click doesn't work.
    I'm going to restart my computer and see if it fixes it.
  • dstillman
    edited January 7, 2020
    That's a Report ID, not a Debug ID. We would want it to cover solely the action of right-clicking and waiting for the menu to appear.
  • mac_coinnich
    Apologies. Rebooting the computer fixed the issue now, but I'll do so next time it happens.
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