Report ID 1873754569

estubbinsbates
Hello,

I have a large library saved to Zotero Standalone, and have been experiencing numerous freezes, crashes and sync problems in recent weeks.

Today, I needed to do a hard reset on my computer twice, as Zotero appeared to crash all programs, starting with Zotero and Chrome.

The latest report ID is: 1873754569 but there have also been problems with the XULRunner program.

I welcome your input, as currently the reliability problems mean I cannot write from my laptop, and need to use another computer with the Zotero web interface only.

Thank you for your time.
  • adamsmith
    From when is the error report ID? Presumably you can't submit one after a crash/freeze?

    How large is your Zotero library? Any large groups you belong to?

    Does the behavior go away if you disable auto-sync for testing?
  • estubbinsbates
    The error report was from two hours ago. It followed a freeze, and was 10 mins after the last crash and hard reset.

    I have over 2000 items in my Zotero library, but I do not belong to any groups.

    I have not yet tried disabling auto-sync, but will do so when I am back at my laptop after work tomorrow.
  • estubbinsbates
    Hello,

    I disabled the auto-sync, and unfortunately, this has not solved the problem. So far today, the program is freezing for a few minutes at a time but not crashing.

    Thanks for your time.
  • adamsmith
    @estubbinsbates -- do you have any add-ons installed? If so, could you try disabling them all and see if that makes a difference?

    @Dan -- can you see anything in the error report?
  • estubbinsbates
    Thanks adamsmith. I use only the Word plug-in and the connector for Chrome; no other add-ons. I will try to disable them one at a time to see if that helps.
  • adamsmith
    no need then, those are both made by Zotero and wouldn't cause this. I'd have been interested in 3rd party add-ons.
  • dstillman
    If this is a Windows touch-screen device, try closing the tag selector in the bottom-left.

    If not, when exactly is it freezing? Can you provide a Debug ID that covers one such freeze?
  • ElizabethGPearson
    Hi there
    I'm also getting this a lot at the moment. XUL not responding. I reboot my laptop frequently but it's getting disruptive.

    I just disabled all extensions in Chrome bar Zotero and McAfee. Would McAfee be the problem? Could it be a laptop issue?

    I have infinite storage and I do have a lot stored. But this is a recent problem, and happens on opening Stand Alone, saving things to it, opening things - any function basically. As I rely on Zotero it's inconvenient.

    Any advice appreciated.

    Best
    Lizz
  • ElizabethGPearson
    ps my error report is 756689531 from about five minutes ago.
  • adamsmith
    you've seen Dan's advice about the tag selector above? On a touchscreen laptop there's a very good chance that's the problem.
  • ElizabethGPearson
    Sorry.. I hadn't registered what that was. But have closed it now. We'll see.

    Thanks for the reply.
    Best!
  • estubbinsbates
    Hello all,

    For some reason, the updates to this thread were not reaching me.

    Danstillman: no, it is a Windows 7 laptop, no touch screen. I cannot provide a further Debug ID because the latest problems (from today) have required a hard reset, twice. The computer did not respond to CTRL+ALT+DEL.

    In the past few days, I thought that disabling the auto sync had helped, as adamsmith suggested. However, today's problems occurred when trying to add a web page to Zotero using the Chrome Connector. I will try to uninstall this to see if it helps.

    Sorry you have a similar problem, ElizabethGPearson.

    Thanks for your time.
  • ElizabethGPearson
    Thanks! But I was glad you had a similar problem in a way - to find this thread ;-)

    I'm still getting (not responding) a lot, despite having switched autosynch off and made the tags invisible.

    Is there anything else I can do?
  • adamsmith
    Elizabeth -- a debug ID capturing such a freeze from you, together with a description of what you were doing at that moment, would be helpful:
    https://www.zotero.org/support/debug_output

    Also, what's the total item count for your library?
    https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/item_count
  • ElizabethGPearson
    Hmm - it's 2749 - a lot. And only at the end of the 1st year of this PhD. It is going to grow more.
  • ElizabethGPearson
    Ok so here I tried to add a citation - zotero froze so I couldn't access the standalone
    This is what came up in the footnotes area:
    ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"teUTpkQs","properties":{"formattedCitation":"Jacques and Taylor 2008, 35.","plainCitation":"Jacques and Taylor 2008, 35."},"citationItems":[{"id":1636,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/2147765/items/SJ5R7QC9"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/2147765/items/SJ5R7QC9"],"itemData":{"id":1636,"type":"article-journal","title":"No Title","page":"1–40","author":[{"family":"Jacques","given":"Karen"},{"family":"Taylor","given":"Paul J"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2008"]]}},"locator":"35"}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} Jacques and Taylor 2008, 35
  • ElizabethGPearson
    This happens a lot - also if I have more than one word doc open, for some reason zotero sometimes puts the citation into another doc.
  • ElizabethGPearson
    I tried to submit the report as you suggested, but couldn't - that box wasn't enabled to do so, despite my following the instructions.

    I submitted an error report instead
    1110101205
  • adamsmith
    anything less than 10,000 items is nothing, shouldn't affect performance at all.

    What do you mean by "that box wasn't enabled to do so" The box to start the debug process or the one to send it? Whenever you do anything in Zotero, it will log something in the debug log which you can then send, so either something is broken at a more basic level or the instructions weren't clear at some point.
  • ElizabethGPearson
    Sorry - very unspecific of me. It was in this part of the process:

    Click “Enable” under Debug Output Logging.
    Immediately perform the relevant action (syncing, saving, importing, etc.).
    Before doing anything else, click “Submit to Zotero Server”

    The " submit to Zotero Server" box could not be clicked on.
  • adamsmith
    OK, after clicking enable, do a couple of things -- you want to make sure this covers something that freezes Zotero. Only then submit. The submit button will only be grey if nothing is logged--even switching between two items in Zotero will show up in the log.
  • estubbinsbates
    Hi all,

    My problem with recurrent freezing and crashing seems to have been corrected by a) disabling the auto-sync feature, and b) uninstalling the Zotero Chrome Connector.

    Manually syncing my Zotero Library slows Chrome and other programs slightly, but not (so far) to the point of a freeze. No crashes since Wednesday.

    Thanks for your time.
  • ElizabethGPearson
    Hey estubbinsbates.. sounds good.
    But don't we need the Chrome Connector to input data into Zotero??

    Best

    Lizz
  • estubbinsbates
    Hi Lizz,

    I find it takes me 30 seconds to transfer manually the title, author, date and URL from web-based sources to Zotero. Freezes and crashes were costing me several minutes per resource.

    Elizabeth
  • adamsmith
    If the Chrome Connector were to indeed have that effect that'd be a big problem, but obviously we have tens of thousands of people using it without any issues. My guess would be something else is going on. Same for auto-sync: 2000 item libraries (or 5000 item libraries for that matter) wouldn't really cause any noticeable delays during sync. The main reason that'd be likely to cause slow down is if you're right at the threshold of your file sync quota.

    Beyond that, see Dan and my requests for debug IDs covering such a slowdown or freeze. Not much he'd be able to say without that.
  • ElizabethGPearson
    I'd never give up my chrome connector!
    I'll wait for it to malfunction again then send the report.
    Do want it cleared up.
    Haven't used it much today.

    Thanks for your help
    Best!
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