Report ID: 670120526, Installation Error

casato

Hi all,

I've been trying to download and install Zotero and have not been successfully. I originally had tried to download the current version (not the beta) and the error message stated that I needed to run the updated version, so I downloaded the beta and tried to install that one, and got this message:

An error has occurred. Please restart Zotero.

I've tried multiple times to uninstall both the current version and the beta in attempt to reinstall, but each time I get the same error messages.

Any help is much appreciated!

Thank you!

dstillman

First, that error message was just telling you that you were running the beta previously, and so you need to continue using it until the next major version, as explained on the beta download page:

note that beta versions occasionally update the database such that downgrading isn't possible without reverting to a backup copy of zotero.sqlite in the Zotero data directory or waiting for the next production release of Zotero

As for the error:

Error(s) encountered during statement execution: no such column: false

It looks like your database is in an unexpected state. Check your database integrity from the Advanced → Files and Folders pane of the Zotero preferences, and then restart Zotero. If that doesn't help, go to Tools → Developer Tools → Run JavaScript and paste this in:

return [
await Zotero.DB.valueQueryAsync("SELECT version FROM version WHERE schema='globalSchema'"),
await Zotero.DB.valueQueryAsync("SELECT itemTypeID FROM itemTypes WHERE typeName='annotation'")
];

Then run that and let us know the result in the right-hand pane.

casato

Hi,

Thank you very much for your help! There were no errors in my database integrity so I ran the code in JavaScript as suggested and this was the result:

[
"0": 13
"1": false
]

Thank you again!

dstillman

Do you have data in this database? Have you used Zotero before on this computer? (Based on the message you were getting, you at least had installed the beta before you installed the release version, but it's not clear to me if you did that previously or just as part of this initial installation process.)

If you're comfortable sharing the database with us, could you ZIP it and email it to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread? This database state just shouldn't exist, and it'd be helpful if we could take a look at it.

After that, if you don't have data, or you do but it's all online, the easiest thing to do would be to just close Zotero, delete the Zotero data directory, and run the version of Zotero you want to use (release or beta).

casato

Hi,

I actually didn't have any data in this database because this was the first time I was attempting to use it! I'm attempting to email the database now.

Deleting the data directory and running the release worked! Thank you very much for your help!

dstillman

Thanks — this was super helpful. You actually had an old, empty Zotero 4.0 database on your system, and you discovered a bug that occurs when upgrading an old database like that to a current Zotero beta. Thanks for reporting!