"There was an error starting Zotero" (after moving database between computers)

hamish

Following previous discussions re simply copying the database across computers, I did just that, and Zotero isn't happy with it. I'm not sure how to try to find out what the problem is, and the error message is a bit ... er ... uninformative.

Once this error appears, I can open the Zotero Prefs dialog (from the "Add ons" list) but it refuses to open the "Choose ..." dialog to change the storage directory. The directory string is also read only.

Any suggestions of what the problem might be, or of some means of diagnosing it further?

dstillman

Make sure you have the latest version of Zotero (from zotero.org, not addons.mozilla.org) on the computer you're copying to.

hamish

1.0.0b4r5, which I think is the latest?

dstillman

You can start Firefox from the command line and send us the console output:

http://www.zotero.org/documentation/starting_firefox_from_the_command_line

hamish

Log below for info. The "Zotero 'scrapers' DB version is newer than SQL file" error message led me to suspect an incomplete upgrade (I suspect ). Uninstalling Zotero and reinstalling seems to have fixed the problem.

Thanks,
Hamish

zotero(3): Using data directory /home/ndph/documents/bibliography/zotero

zotero(3): pdftotext-Linux-i686 not found -- PDF indexing disabled

zotero(3): Opening database 'zotero'

zotero(5): SELECT version FROM version WHERE schema='userdata'

zotero(5): Beginning DB transaction

zotero(3): Beginning Notifier event queue

zotero(5): SELECT version FROM version WHERE schema='system'

zotero(5): SELECT version FROM version WHERE schema='scrapers'

zotero(3): Zotero 'scrapers' DB version is newer than SQL file

zotero(5): Rolling back transaction

zotero(3): Resetting Notifier event queue

schwabo

hello - same problem here - after working on one computer (under linux), the second gives the "Zotero 'scrapers' DB version is newer than SQL file"-message.
Re-installing zotero did not help.
Can you help me?

Starting via console reports:

zotero(3): Using data directory F:\Zotero

zotero(3): Opening database 'zotero'

zotero(3): pdftotext-Win32.exe not found -- PDF indexing disable

zotero(5): SELECT version FROM version WHERE schema='userdata'

zotero(5): Beginning DB transaction

zotero(3): Beginning Notifier event queue

zotero(5): SELECT version FROM version WHERE schema='system'

zotero(5): Committing transaction

zotero(3): Resetting Notifier event queue

zotero(5): SELECT version FROM version WHERE schema='scrapers'

zotero(1): Zotero 'scrapers' DB version is newer than SQL file

dstillman

As above, make sure you have the same and latest version of Zotero on both computers.

schwabo

sorry, this does not help
all computers have Zoter 1.0.7.
the only difference is that one reports a "1.0.7.r3803"-Version - the other not.
Re-installing from the homepage leads to a a version "1.0.7." - and to the message described above....
How can bring the different computers to the same version of Zotero?
thank you!

noksagt

1.0.7.r3803 is an SVN branch build & is newer than the official 1.0.7 release.

kaoru

I have the same problem. My Zotero was 1.0.7.r3866 or even later on one machine. And, I accidentally re-installed Zotero on that machine and replace it with the official version ---1.0.7.

How I can I open the Zotero data created with 1.0.7.r3866? Or, is there anyway to "update" Zotero to .r3866?

Thank you.

dstillman

That's a 1.0 dev build. You'll need to install and use that until 1.0.8 comes out, at which point you can switch back to the official version.

kaoru

Thank you very much.