Zotero Causing Firefox to Crash

profcarpenter
A couple of days ago I upgraded to Firefox 31. Today I went to add something to my Zotero Library. When I clicked on the icon, Zotero opened but the Library was empty and then Firefox crashed. The only way to get it to work again was to install a clean copy without any add-ons. When I went to add Zotero back to the program, Firefox did not want to add it at first. I have gotten Zotero installed but am unable to synce my library and Firefox continues to crash when I go to do anything in Zotero like go to the tab-view. Any help would be appreciated as I have several ongoing projects in Zotero.
  • dstillman
    edited July 28, 2014
    Freezing or crashing? From the looks of it, your Zotero was, until a few minutes ago, performing a full download of your library, which would happen if Zotero was for some reason no longer pointed at your existing data directory (which would happen if you first actually uninstalled Firefox and told it to delete data instead of just updating it, or if it somehow lost your setting pointing at a custom data directory (which is stored in the Firefox preferences)). The way Zotero currently works, a large download can freeze Firefox for a few minutes while it processes. That's nothing to worry about — you just need to let it go for a few minutes.

    But it looks like syncing is now working normally for you, either because you pointed it back at your previous data directory or because you waited for it to finish.
  • profcarpenter
    Thanks for your comments Dan.

    Zotero did finally download the my data for what good that does. I have tried opening different collections or clicking on an item in the open collection and each time Firefox freezes and I get a message at the top of the screen that Firefox is not responding. I have waited up to 15 minutes to see if there would be a response and there was none.

    I have downloaded the stand alone program so that I can continue with my work and it seems to be working fine.
  • dstillman
    I have tried opening different collections or clicking on an item in the open collection and each time Firefox freezes and I get a message at the top of the screen that Firefox is not responding.
    I don't see any further sync attempts, but have you tried temporarily disabling auto-sync in the Sync pane of the preferences to make sure that's not the cause?
    I have downloaded the stand alone program so that I can continue with my work and it seems to be working fine.
    Using the same data directory (the default) or a different data directory?

    If you generate real-time debug output for clicking on a collection and triggering a freeze and then email that to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread we should have a better idea of what's happening.
  • profcarpenter
    Dan, Thanks again for continuing to work with me.

    >>have you tried temporarily disabling auto-sync in the Sync pane of the preferences to make sure that's not the cause?

    I tried doing this this afternoon. After opening Zotero for Firefox, I clicked on the settings button. I do not know how long it took to open but after sitting here for 5 minutes I stepped away from my computer when I came back 5 minutes later it was open. I disabled the auto-sync and played around with Zotero and everything was working fine. I even tried syncing and that went quickly.

    >> Using the same data directory (the default) or a different data directory?

    The Zotero for Standalone was installed using the default directory.

    I have enabled the debug output logging capability on Zotero for Firefox and re-activated the auto-sync feature in a hope I could have Zotero mess up again. The good news/bad news is that I have been unable to have it mess up. I will continue to have it run with the debug enabled in case it messes up again.

    Thanks for your help.

    John
  • dstillman
    I do not know how long it took to open but after sitting here for 5 minutes I stepped away from my computer when I came back 5 minutes later it was open.
    That's generally an indication of a major problem. The preferences should open instantaneously.

    Is your data directory on a network share or server-mirrored hard drive? Alternatively, are you running any security software? If the latter, you might try temporarily disabling it (if you can get this to happen again, or if you get a consistent delay trying to open the preferences (perhaps after restarting Firefox/Zotero) that you can use for comparison).
  • profcarpenter
    >> Is your data directory on a network share or server-mirrored hard drive?

    No

    >> Alternatively, are you running any security software?

    Whether I am running a security program does not seem to have an effect on the situation.

    When I went to open Zotero this morning, it took five minutes for it to allow me to open the preferences. I did some stuff and Zotero worked fine so I closed it. I went off and did other things on the computer and reopened Zotero about 1 1/2 hours later. Things worked fine when I was in my Rose Publication's e-charts collection which has 33 records I had no problem. The major delay comes when I switch to my House Library which has 2000 Items. By the way, the delay seems to occur no matter what you click on, even a record, as long as you are in that database and it is the first time it is opening.

    By the way, I am running the latest version of Firefox in Windows 8.1.
  • dstillman
    Well, loading a large library for the first time at the beginning of a session (meaning after restarting Zotero/Firefox) could take a few seconds, but it certainly shouldn't take longer than that. Are we still talking about minutes? It's not expected that you would restart Firefox or Zotero frequently, though. (Closing the Zotero pane doesn't count as restarting, just restarting Firefox or Zotero Standalone.)

    But let's focus on the preferences for the moment, since that's the clearest sign of a problem. Can you provide a Debug ID for opening the preferences with a delay?
  • profcarpenter
    I finally had some time to do this for you. Sorry for the delay. The Debug ID for when you hit the preferences is 1439464378. I hit the toogle tab mode button right after I sent the error report to you and it cause a delay as well so I sent that Debug Report to you as well as ID number 614666701. I hope this helps.

    John
  • dstillman
    No, sorry, those are Report IDs — they don't log ongoing actions. Debug IDs are different.
  • profcarpenter
    Ok I found what you mean about debug reports I think. I cannot seem to get them to work for the Preferences button. Every time I get it to stick the log reads 0 lines logged. I did get it to record lines when the programmed froze when I push the "Toggle Tab" function and sent you that report. It is report number D2071940384.

    I hope this is right and I will keep trying to get a report with the preference button.
  • dstillman
    Oh, well, if the preferences window is already open, it wouldn't log anything new, but what you can do is use the "Enable after restart" debug output option, restart Firefox, and then open the preferences. Then click on View Output (just to make sure it adds a new line that shows the timing of the opening) and submit the output.
  • dstillman
    I'm curious, though, whether the other freezes you're experiencing go away if you close the tag selector in the bottom left of Zotero.
  • profcarpenter
    I closed off the tag selector and all the freezes have stopped.
  • dstillman
    There've been a few reports of this, so I'm consolidating the threads:

    https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/38997/tag-changes-freeze-firefox/#Item_19

    If you have answers to my questions there, that'd be helpful in tracking this down.

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