Zotero in Firefox: "Error starting Zotero"

Hello,

I'm using Firefox 19.0.2, Zotero 3.0.14 (oh, and OSX 10.8.3).

Zotero icon wouldn't show up in my add-on bar, and although I can see it in the Tools menu, I get this message when I try to open from there: "Alert: There was an error starting Zotero."

I tried restarting, and then I followed the instructions I found here http://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_bugs to find the error reports.

The thing is, the error reports - of which there were three - all had "http" in them. I'm going to copy and paste them here anyway, in the hope that you can help me, since otherwise I have no idea what to do:

Timestamp: 3/17/13 1:30:26 PM
Error: ReferenceError: dw_locktimer is not defined
Source File: http://www.zotero.org/support/lib/exe/js.php?tseed=1357235583
Line: 1

Timestamp: 3/17/13 1:30:26 PM
Error: TypeError: $tree.dw_tree is not a function
Source File: http://www.zotero.org/support/lib/exe/js.php?tseed=1357235583
Line: 1

Timestamp: 3/17/13 1:30:26 PM
Error: TypeError: History.getState is not a function
Source File: http://www.zotero.org/static/js/_zoterowwwAll.bugly.1360884110.js
Line: 4460

Thanks in advance for any help.

Rebecca
  • Yeah, those aren't related. If restarting your computer doesn't help and you don't see any other errors, can you start Firefox with Zotero's real-time debug output enabled and paste in anything that shows up?
  • Sure. Here we go:

    zotero(3): Using data directory /Zotero Data

    ({})[Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED) [nsIFile.create]" nsresult: "0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/ipc.js :: <TOP_LEVEL> :: line 36" data: no]

    zotero(3): Using data directory /Zotero Data

    ({})[Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED) [nsIFile.create]" nsresult: "0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/ipc.js :: <TOP_LEVEL> :: line 36" data: no]

    zotero(3): Using data directory /Zotero Data

    ({})[Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED) [nsIFile.create]" nsresult: "0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/ipc.js :: <TOP_LEVEL> :: line 36" data: no]

    zotero(3): Using data directory /Zotero Data

    ({})[Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED) [nsIFile.create]" nsresult: "0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/ipc.js :: <TOP_LEVEL> :: line 36" data: no]
  • You could get this if the permissions of your Zotero data directory were incorrect—say, from moving the directory from another computer. You can fix it via Get Info in the Finder, but you'd have to look for instructions for that elsewhere if necessary. This could also be due to security software, though that's somewhat less likely on a Mac.
  • Oh, thank you! That's just what happened - I had moved directories from one computer to another. Permissions changed and now I'm all set.

    Thanks so much.
  • Great. We'll fix this to display a better error.
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