Upgrade StorageStandalone unusable after uninstalling firefox
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Can I go ahead and try reintalling as per your instructions above, or does that Firefox folder need completely deleting? Hesitant to involve my IT dept if it is not required.
Have you tried starting Firefox after deleting all files inside the Firefox's AppData folder? It might recreate the default profile.
I'm guessing that Firefox was initially installed by a system administrator and will be located in C:\Program Files (x86), which means that you can't remove it and you can't install on top of it, so if you installed it somewhere else, you would have two Firefox installations, which I would not suggest at this point.
I notice that there is also a Mozilla Firefox folder in Appdata\local (as well as a Mozilla folder). This contains an 'uninstall' folder and an executable file firefox.exe.moz-delete. DO YOU THINK I SHOULD DELETE THESE BEFORE TRYING A REINSTALL OR EXECUTE THE MOZ-DELETE FILE?
It wasn't mentioned on the Firefox uninstall instructions https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/uninstall-firefox-from-your-computer .
The original firefox was not installed by a system administrator, so there are no files in program files (I just cancelled out of the administrator dialogue box when installing as you mentioned previously). [Unfortunately, Zotero translators do not work on the institutionally installed version of Firefox (it's to do with the network set up but that's a different issue ...)]
I then looked to see what Zotero folders I have in Appdata\local and found two folders labelled Zotero and Zotero Standalone. Tried opening Standalone using the executable file but it would not respond. Then navigated to Appdata\local\Zotero\Zotero\Firefox. When I opened this folder, it automatically opened the webpage in Firefox https://www.zotero.org/start_standalone and started standalone [I'm not sure why it would be doing this from the Zotero Firefox folder ?]
I am now able to open via the executable file in the Zotero Standalone folder, and have successfully pointed to my data directory. Success!!
Do you suggest that I now go ahead and install Zotero for Firefox again? (Just checking there's nothing else I should think of first before I mess the whole thing up at the last hurdle!)
Anyway thank you for taking me through what was a very long process, but hopefully I will have a working solution for a while now.
What would be really useful for users on institutional networks is for zotero to have a page for IT departments, giving instructions on what access is required to do a full install for the different zotero options / firefox etc, or instructions for them to install if they won't allow the privileges. A kind of straightforward guide in the appropriate language. I think this would save some problems and also encourage institutions not to be so suspicious of it.
The difficulty started after Firefox was getting really slow and requested a procedure to purge all sorts of add ons. I did this and this deleted the Zotero add on. But now that I reinstalled it, I can no longer download any references.
Any suggestions how to fix this ?
https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/sharing_data_directory
When I checked the various directories, I get the following (recall I want the standalone to be the default directory)
1) For Firefox Zotero the Custom Directory is the one for the Standalone but the profile directory (i.e. the one that shows up when I click on "Show Data Directory) is the Firefox Zotero one
2) For the Standalone, the Custom Directory is the Firefox one and the profile Directory is the one for the Standalone.
Any further suggestions ?
The directories are definitely the problem here, so this is what you need to fix. well, not necessarily - you want to use Standalone, but that doesn't really affect where the data is stored. That is determined by which of the two you installed first.
If you take a screenshot of the two relevant preference tabs and put it up on dropbox, imgur or so and link to it, I can probably tell you what's going wrong.
Here is the Dropbox link https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mz9a03mxad00jfx/AABlzJUwYDOMXCQQ2hvo9Ge_a?dl=0
Hope it works.
Restart Firefox and I think this should work.
To make things even more confusing, I download an items the little download notice in the lower right hand corner indicates a) that download is in progress, b) that it is downloading into the collection that I selection. But then I go to the collection but cannot find the items. This happens regardless of whether I choose a collection in the standalone or Firefox version.
I made a short little video to illustrate the problem. Hopefully, this might prove helpful.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k84uvvtok7g9ugz/Zotero%20Video.mp4?dl=0
2) Most likely you have some other Zotero-related extension installed into Firefox that's automatically deleting newly added items (perhaps after auto-exporting them).
1) Firefox Custom Directory should be the Firefox or Standalone Directory
2) Standalone Custom Directory should be Firefox or Standalone Directory ?
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1) I deleted the Zot2Bib add on in Firefox. Now I can download references but only into the Firefox Zotero.
2) I presume for those references to migrate to the Standalone Zotero, I have to Standalone Directory in the Custom profile directory. This is what I did but I cannot select the Custom profile directory. After I link to the relevant directory, it goes gray Zotero selects the profile directory.
So, if somebody can help me with that final step - how to have to Firefox Zotero select the custom rather than the profile diretory - we might have solved the problem.