Zotero crashes at launch

Hi, I'm having a problem with Zotero since last week (I haven't used it since two months ago, so I don't know exactly when this problem started).

When I open Zotero, I can see for one second a blank window, and then it closes. Nothing else happens.

I have uninstalled Zotero, reinstalled, uninstalled and deleted my library, reinstalled again, etc and it is still not working. I also checked, according to another post, that the uft-8 option was disabled in the Region options of the Control Panel.

I am running Windows 10 Version 10.0.18362 Build 18362 in a HP ProBook 470 G0, and everything is up to date. I haven't made changes in my system since the last time that I used Zotero.

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
  • I forgot to say that I can't find any crash report.
  • Does it work if you create a new Zotero profile?
  • Thanks for your reply.

    Unfortunately, it doesn't work. I saw the blank window again that closed after one second. Nothing else.
  • Do you see the profile manager?
  • No, I can't see anything besides that windows that disappears very fast (I managed to capture here https://imgur.com/zKWqfqz ).
  • edited March 3, 2020
    That's starting via the Run dialog with -P?
  • Yes. It happened the same.

    But now I tried again (just in case) and something changed. Now the blank window is smaller and is called "Zotero - Choose user profile". But it also closes after one second.
  • See Zotero Profile Location. What happens if you rename the "Profiles" directory listed there to "Profiles-Old"?
  • Exactly the same.
  • OK, you can rename that back to Profiles.

    And then you should try in a new OS account. This obviously isn't a general problem, so it's likely something unusual on your system that's causing this, and it's possible it's limited to your current OS user account.
  • @atanvard: If you're running any security software, you would also want to try temporarily disabling that.
  • I created a new account, started Zotero, and I got the same blank window that disappears.

    I also tried deactivating Windows Defender, with the same results.

    It is very strange, because Zotero worked perfectly until a few weeks ago, and I don't remember installing or uninstalling anything that could have made a conflict with Zotero, or any other changes.
  • I assume you've tried restarting your computer?
  • You can try a few previous versions to see if anything changed in Zotero. These are ZIP versions that you don't need to install — just extract to a directory and double-click zotero.exe to start. Best to try these in the new account. If an empty Zotero data directory was created (with a 1 MB or 5 MB zotero.sqlite file and no 'storage' folder), delete it first.

    https://www.zotero.org/download/client/dl?channel=release&platform=win32-zip&version=5.0.77

    https://www.zotero.org/download/client/dl?channel=release&platform=win32-zip&version=5.0.78

    https://www.zotero.org/download/client/dl?channel=release&platform=win32-zip&version=5.0.82
  • Hi again, and, by the way, thanks for the help and your time.

    I tried the three previous versions that you listed, and all of them gave the same result: a small blank window called "Profile missing" that also disappears.

    I also restarted the computer (just in case, because I have been having this problem for a few days and I turned the computer on/off several times during this time).

    Is there anything else that I could try?
  • Sorry, when I said to rename "Profiles-Old" above, I should've said to rename the "Zotero" folder above that (in other words, to rename Roaming\Zotero\Zotero to Roaming\Zotero\Zotero-Old). In any case, since this happens even for the error window, or for the Profile Manager itself, that won't help. You can rename "Profiles-Old" back to "Profiles", which should fix the "Profile missing" error.

    But since this happens with Zotero 5.0.77, that means that something else on your system has changed recently across user accounts, and I'm afraid you'll need to figure out what that is, since Zotero 5.0.77 was released last October and this isn't a general problem.
  • That's unfortunate, because I use Zotero for my work. Do you have any idea of where should I look for what's creating this problem? Is there any program/etc that Zotero relies/depends on and could be the cause? Otherwise, I'll have to reinstall Windows (without any guarantee that it would solve this problem), and I would like to avoid doing something so drastic, that will mean a lot of work installing and configuring everything again.

    Thanks again for all your help.
  • You can try starting Zotero in Safe Mode by holding down Shift.

    You can try right-clicking on the shortcut and changing the compatibility mode in the Compatibility tab to Windows 7 or Windows 8 (though Zotero obviously runs fine on Windows 10 in general).

    You can try running as an administrator, though in general we strongly discourage that. (If you try that, do it in the new account so you don't mess with the old one.)

    You can see if Firefox 60.9.0 ESR, on which Zotero is based, works on your system, though even if it does that doesn't give us much to go on. You can also try to find people who have reported similar issues with Firefox, since the cause is likely to be the same.

    I'm afraid I don't really have much to suggest beyond that.
  • Oh, woah. Zotero starts in Safe Mode! I could launch it and sync my account.

    OK, I guess that I'll have to launch it holding shift every time, and hope that it will keep working.

    Thank you very much for all your help!
  • But it doesn't work now if you start it again in normal mode?

    Most likely cause of that is probably your graphics card drivers. Try updating those if possible.

    If you're not able to fix it that way, you can try disabling hardware acceleration in Zotero. With Zotero closed, go to to your Zotero profile directory, open prefs.js in a text editor (e.g., Notepad), and add these lines:

    user_pref("gfx.direct2d.disabled", true);
    user_pref("layers.acceleration.disabled", true);

    Then see if Zotero starts normally. If it does, close it, open prefs.js again, and try removing one or other of the lines to see which helps.
  • Just checked all of this.

    I updated the graphic drivers, and the problem persisted.

    But Zotero launches if I add the "user_pref("layers.acceleration.disabled", true);" line to the prefs.js file. OK, I'm going to leave it.

    Thanks again!
  • +1, I have the same problem today. Thanks for your solutions above.

    Just provide a solution here. I changed my laptop power plan yesterday to run every app via the descrete graphic card. Just restore the default power setting that run zotero via integrated graphics, the problem can be solved well.
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