[Solved] LibreOffice can not connect to Zotero

thaiphd

I had a problem (actually still have but found a way around, hence marked as solved, per se).

Everything was working normally. I do not remember it too vividly though.
Obviously I update LibreOffice from 6.2 to 6.3.5.x (this may not be the reason but I just tell it as what happened).
Symptoms:
- LibreOffice complained that it could not connect to Zotero.
_ Zotero was running simultaneously.
- In Zotero preferences -> Cite -> Word processor: do not see an option to reinstall LibreOffice add-on.
- In LibreOffice, Zotero add-on show installed and enabled.

What I did:
- Remove and reinstall the add-on manually -> still not fixed.
- Remove and reinstall Zotero -> still not fixed. I did remove directory ~/.zotero and thought that it would be enough to make Zotero forget all configurations but obviously not, Zotero still remember all my references...

What I did that fixed this:
- I run zotero in command line with option to create another profile: "./zotero -P your_name" -> This seem to reset Zotero to a new profile and reinstall the add-on. All works well again. But only if I run Zotero with this profile.

Question:
- How do I delete "the other" profile that doesn't work and make the new profile the default?
- What could have create this problem? Is that a bug?

Thanks guys!
Zotero rocks! Love it! Never use EndNote and do not want to.

dstillman

I suspect you just didn't test this fully. Deleting ~/.zotero was overkill, but it also almost certainly would've fixed this. This isn't related to your library data, so the fact that your references still existed (which I'm guessing is all you checked) is irrelevant. Creating a new profile, while also unnecessary, is equivalent to deleting ~/.zotero and no longer using your old profile. (I don't really understand what you mean when you say it's only fixed if you run Zotero with the new profile — since deleting ~/.zotero would've deleted your old profile — unless you're saying that you restored from a backup of ~/.zotero after creating the new profile.)

In any case, the fix here is likely as simple as deleting extensions.json in your original Zotero profile directory, which is stored within ~/.zotero.

As for the cause, we'd have to see the old extensions.json (which you could email to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread if you still have it) to say more, but it's likely related to running Zotero for the first time from a different location than where it is now. We should have a fix in the next release of Zotero that will automatically repair things when this happens.

thaiphd

I am sorry if I confuse you. I am just a new user of Zotero and do not understand half of what you said.
I did have a backup of ~/.zotero. I have sent the file extensions.json to support@zotero.org
What I meant by old profile is this:
If I run Zotero by command: "/opt/zotero/zotero", LibreOffice can not see Zotero.
If I run Zotero by command: "/opt/zotero/zotero -P my_user_name", LibreOffice can now link to Zotero and work as normal. So I guess there is something wrong in my default profile.
Anyway, thank you for your support. All the best!
Thai

dstillman

As I say, the fix here would just be deleting extensions.json in your original profile directory.

You originally ran Zotero from a different location (from within ~/bin), and there's currently a bug where the word processor plugins might not start up properly if you run Zotero from a different path from where it was originally. Until we put out a fix, deleting extensions.json will fix it.

dstillman

(And once the original profile is fixed, to avoid future confusion you should delete the new profile from the profile manager, as well as any second Zotero data directory that it created.)

thaiphd

Thank you. I deleted the json file and it works now.