There was an error starting Zotero: Standalone and browser extension
Apologies if this is asked and answered, but I haven't been able to find an answer by searching.
I'm using a Mac, OS X 10.7.3, running Firefox 11.0; as far as I can tell, Zotero and related extensions are up-to-date. This problem has existed for a couple cycles of OS and Firefox updates, though, but it hasn't become a critical issue for my own work until now—so now I'm asking about it.
If I try to start Zotero either as the Firefox extension or the standalone version, I get a dialog box stating "There was an error starting Zotero". When I'm trying to start the standalone version, what appears to be a Zotero window flashes up on the screen very, very briefly before disappearing. In Firefox, the Zotero button at the bottom of the screen is superimposed by a yellow warning icon at all times, even if I haven't tried to start Zotero during that browser session.
I followed the instructions for getting startup error codes in standalone Zotero, and I got what's below; the last few parts of it popped up after the brief flash of the Zotero window, but I'm not sure exactly where the dividing line between pre-window and post-window errors lies.
So what can I do to fix this?
The error console contents:
[extra output removed — D.S.]
Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80630002 (NS_ERROR_STORAGE_IOERR) [mozIStorageService.openDatabase]" nsresult: "0x80630002 (NS_ERROR_STORAGE_IOERR)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/db.js :: :: line 1104" data: no]
Source File: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/zotero.js
Line: 748
[extra output removed — D.S.]
I'm using a Mac, OS X 10.7.3, running Firefox 11.0; as far as I can tell, Zotero and related extensions are up-to-date. This problem has existed for a couple cycles of OS and Firefox updates, though, but it hasn't become a critical issue for my own work until now—so now I'm asking about it.
If I try to start Zotero either as the Firefox extension or the standalone version, I get a dialog box stating "There was an error starting Zotero". When I'm trying to start the standalone version, what appears to be a Zotero window flashes up on the screen very, very briefly before disappearing. In Firefox, the Zotero button at the bottom of the screen is superimposed by a yellow warning icon at all times, even if I haven't tried to start Zotero during that browser session.
I followed the instructions for getting startup error codes in standalone Zotero, and I got what's below; the last few parts of it popped up after the brief flash of the Zotero window, but I'm not sure exactly where the dividing line between pre-window and post-window errors lies.
So what can I do to fix this?
The error console contents:
[extra output removed — D.S.]
Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80630002 (NS_ERROR_STORAGE_IOERR) [mozIStorageService.openDatabase]" nsresult: "0x80630002 (NS_ERROR_STORAGE_IOERR)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/db.js :: :: line 1104" data: no]
Source File: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/zotero.js
Line: 748
[extra output removed — D.S.]
This could be due to security software, a disk issue, filesystem corruption, or maybe database corruption. (For the last one, you could try the DB Repair Tool, but this isn't usually the error one would get for that.)
Disabling all security software (including the built-in firewall, for good measure, though I don't know how that would cause the problem) does not allow me to start Zotero.
Disk Utility shows no disk errors, and repairing permissions doesn't help.
What exactly does that error mean?
If there's an sqlite-journal file in your Zotero data directory with Firefox closed, try deleting that. Edit: Don't do this. It could result in database corruption. Otherwise, try the repair tool.
Your suggestion didn't solve the problem, but it led me in the right direction—it turns out that there were some weird ACL settings on the files in my Zotero bibliography folder. (No idea how that happened, but given some of the stuff my university's IT department has been doing to our computers lately, I have a couple guesses.) I removed the ACL restrictions, and everything works fine now. Thanks for the help!