error starting Zotero

socsavvy · September 19, 2014

I just got a new laptop and cannot get Zotero to work on it. I've downloaded it as an extension to Firefox, but I have repeatedly gotten the Alert that "There was an error starting zotero," no matter how many times I've uninstalled and reinstalled it. Any advice on how to fix this?

dstillman · September 19, 2014

Start here: https://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_problems#reporting_startup_errors

socsavvy · September 20, 2014

Thanks for your help Dan. I followed those directions regarding Firefox and only found one file mentioning chrome (pasted below). I couldn't find anything containing "zotero." Any advice on where to go from here?

chrome://global/content/bindings/resizer.xml#resizer al

adamsmith · September 20, 2014

And you're still getting that error about starting Zotero? That would definitely log something in the console.

socsavvy · September 20, 2014

Sorry, not sure I was doing it right. Just tried again and got this:

[15:25:24.064] TypeError: History.getState is not a function @ https://www.zotero.org/static/js/_zoterowwwAll.bugly.1410467963.js:4478

adamsmith · September 20, 2014

Hmm- that's from the zotero webpage, so that doesn't help either. Could you check under add-ons-->extensions exactly which Zotero version you have installed in Firefox? And which Firefox version are you using?

dstillman · September 20, 2014

That second one is from the Web Console. You want the Browser Console (which is likely where the first chrome:// one came from). Can you just copy and paste everything you see in the Browser Console after resetting those extension files and restarting Firefox (assuming you still get the Zotero startup error)?

socsavvy · September 21, 2014

Thanks for all your help, Adam and Dave. It looks like my new computer (from employer) had a way outdated version of Firefox, which explains why I couldn't get the Browser Console working properly. After installing the new version, Zotero seems to be working just fine!