Zotero standalone freezes- XULrunner not responding

gdntmoon
I see various versions of similar problems posted on here, but nothing seems quite close enough to help me--yesterday Zotero started freezing every time I open it and try to access the libraries I'm a part of (they're large--I had some issues getting them to sync the first time, though they've worked fine for the last week I've been using them).

I haven't downloaded anything new and am not able to get as far as taking any action--it just freezes either during or after accessing the library, goes to "Not Responding," and if I try to close gives the message "XULRunner is not responding." Any help would be much appreciated.
  • adamsmith
    how long have you let this run? A large sync download may freeze Standalone for some time.
  • gdntmoon
    I'd say the longest I've let it run was between a half hour and an hour (I'm letting it run now and will see if it resolves itself given enough time). There hasn't been much added to the libraries recently that I know of, though it's possible something has changed.
  • Chell
    I'm having a similar problem - zotero standalone freezes as soon as I open it, and when I try to close it it comes up with a message re. XULrunner not responding. What to do?

    I recently reorganised/renamed a couple of folders and added a few files but nothing major...
  • dstillman
    Same answer. Let it go.
  • Chell
    Ok... now no longer frozen but coming up with 14000 conflicts. Looks like the remote versions have a lot more data associated with them (abstracts etc.). How to accept all?

    Thanks!
  • dstillman
    It looks like that installation hasn't synced since July 2013, which would explain the conflicts.

    If you're happy with your data as it exists online, you could just close Zotero, move your Zotero data directory out of the way, restart Zotero to create an empty database, and then sync to pull down all the server data.

    Assuming you have more recent data, though, your best option is probably to export the recent data (sorting by Date Added in the middle pane, which you can add if necessary) to Zotero RDF with files. Then you can close Zotero, move your old Zotero data directory out of the way, restart Zotero with an empty database, and sync to pull down all the server data. Then you can reimport the exported data and sync that up to the server.

    Note that any items you export and import will be treated as completely new items, so you export anything that does exist on the server it would be duplicated, and if you've used any of the recent items in word processor documents, the association to the items in your database might break.
  • Chell
    Hi Dan,

    Just returning to this problem now, having been scared off by the words "your database might break". This thing has years of work built up in it and I really don't want to break it or lose anything!

    As far as I can tell I haven't successfully synced for over a year now, though there is some new stuff that is only showing up online and not in my desktop (and more new stuff only in my standalone). I think this all happened when I was trying to set up my workflow to include a tablet (using zotfile), which never really got off the ground.

    Apparently, my files are currently in:
    \Desktop\Old Firefox Data\yr9cp5et.default\zotero
    No idea what they are doing there. I am now using chrome.

    A few questions before I begin:
    1. Where do you recommend I put my files from now on?
    2. Where is a safe place to put them while I am restarting Zotero with an empty database? Moving them around makes me nervous!
    3. Is there an easy way to deal with duplicates once I have followed through on the process suggested above? I fear there will be thousands.

    Thanks for your support!
  • tgarland
    Hi All,
    I use Zotero stand alone in Windows 7. I do not synch with any online libraries. I often get the "XULRunner has stopped responding" problem simply when dragging a new PDF file into Zotero. Any suggestions?
    Many thanks.
  • minicht
    I also encounter the 'Zotero (Not responding)' and 'XULRunner has stopped responding' messages very frequently - nearly every time I try and do anything in Zotero. My library is not large (~5,000 items), so I can't explain why it is so slow. Adding a reference can take upwards of 5-10 min, which is painfully slow. Would appreciate any suggestions for improving the speed of an otherwise fantastic product.
  • adamsmith
    minimize the tag selector on the left, especially if you have a touchscreen monitor.
  • minicht
    The tag selector is minimized.
  • adamsmith
    we'd want a total item count:
    https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/item_count
    (i.e. all items, notes, and attachments)
    as well as a debug ID for any action that takes unduly long together with an exact description what you're doing during that debug:
    http://www.zotero.org/support/debug_output
  • minicht
    I submitted debug id D497065974 that generated when opening Zotero. I also submitted error report 1843845826 in case that is useful.
    Item count - 5299
    Total item count - 11162
  • minicht
    Did these error and debug reports help find any problem?
  • dstillman
    Caching fields [title,date,journalAbbreviation,dateAdded,volume,pages,issue,extra]

    SELECT itemID, fieldID, value FROM itemData NATURAL JOIN itemDataValues WHERE fieldID IN (110,111,112,113,14,96,52,100,25,4,94,97,10,95,98,5,22)

    (+0025704)
    minicht: At least for this 25-second delay at startup, try removing some of the columns you've added to the middle pane. Try it with just, say, Title, Date, and DateAdded and see if that's any better.
  • robinwilson
    I have similar "XUL runner/sync" problems to those experienced by others: For some time I have had auto sync turned off, intending to do a manual overnight sync. when I eventually did manual sync I was asked to manually select preferred item version for each change. With >6,000 of these (most deletions) I prefer to force zotero to overwrite the server database with my local one. (i have no shared groups or other colleagues working on any element of my library). When I used the Zotero sync option that overwrites the server library with my local one I now have Zotero standalone that crashes with the dreaded "XUL runner not working" message. I have waited 12 hours thinking it may complete the task overnight but this morning the same problem prevails with Zotero standalone. However if I access Zotero library via Firefox all is well and I can see Zotero has indeed updated the server with my local version. I can see all my recent changes on the server. However I can no longer run Zotero standalone! I have attempted to get debug output but a long error report scrolls rapidly then leaves the window blank. I'm using Zotero standalone on Windows7. My library is over 39,000 items. I would prefer to keep using Zotero standalone. What should I do to get it working?! Many thanks and apologies if someone else posted and solved this problem (I couldn't see anything)

    PS it seems to me that very many of these kind of problems would be averted if only Zotero had some sort of status window that told the user what, if anything, is happening in the background.
  • dstillman
    Robin:

    1) If you're having trouble with large syncs and conflicts, you really should be using auto-sync — it avoids these problems. You'll never be more than 15 seconds out of date. Using the "choose all from this side" option every time is definitely not something you want to do.

    2) The next major version of Zotero will both keep the UI responsive during large operations and handle large syncs much better.

    3) If Zotero for Firefox is syncing fine, it's possible you have a different data directory set. Since Firefox is working, you should point Zotero Standalone to the data directory Zotero for Firefox is using. They should be using the same directory, such that when you open Standalone the Firefox version switches to a lightweight connector mode. (After switching the data directory to the same directory as Firefox and making sure all your data is there, you should delete the other one to avoid confusion.)
  • dstillman
    (But this is also mostly unrelated to the above, so you should start a new thread if you need more help with this.)
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