"Error connecting to server" in Firefox 46

huubsanders
When syncing, zotero stops and reports 'cannot connect to server'. ID 1562419168.
My other applicatrions work, there is internet connection. I have the latest versions of zotero and firefox installed.

Huub Sanders
  • kdb_research
    Same thing here : Report ID 1923453380
  • adamsmith
    edited April 29, 2016
    Provided you're using Firefox 46, there does seem to be an issue for some people, but so far, Zotero devs haven't been able to replicate it (and so they don't know what's causing it). They're looking for Debug IDs for failed syncs (different from report IDs):
    https://www.zotero.org/support/debug_output     [Edit: See below.]
  • kdb_research
    Debug ID is D1715999346.
  • huubsanders
    Debug ID is D2036462764.
  • dstillman
    edited April 29, 2016
    If this is still happening for you, if you could go to the URL about:support in the Firefox address bar, click the "Copy text to clipboard" button, paste the text into an email, and send it to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread, that would be helpful. We're trying to figure out what's different on the systems where this is occurring.

    Note that this seems to occur only for uploads, so if it seems to be working, make a local change to an item and then make sure you can sync successfully after that.
  • goldberghiller
    Additional information that may be helpful. If I restart my computer (OS X) I can usually connect to the server one time. Subsequent sync processes fail.
  • Jon Rubin
    edited April 30, 2016
    Hi, I've been getting sync problems too.
    Windows 7, Firefox 46
    report id : 426179202

    The first time this happened, restarting Firefox helped, this time it didn't. Let me know if I can help more. I'll check on my linux mint install, see if that behaves.

    report id : 469335445
    this one after disabling all other extensions and closing all other tabs. Weirdly, it will let me 'verify server' in the sync preferences, and then comes up with the "Error connecting to server. Check your Internet connection." when I try to sync
  • asherzot
    I got also Sync-problems after syncing my old profile:

    Report-ID: 1619492208

    I tried to sync an existing profile, without success. Progressbar showed syncing-process, but I had no added entries in the online-store. My local machine got also no updates from my online-store.

    According to the following discussion-link, I created a new FF-profile, copied my old Zotero-content into the new Zotero-folder and then I got at least new entries in the online-store and on my local machine. But attachments are not syncing and error-warning is still shown.

    https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/58790/error-connecting-to-server/#Item_0

    Linux Mint 13 Mate

    Application Basics
    ------------------

    Name: Firefox
    Version: 46.0
    Build ID: 20160425120036
    User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux i686; rv:46.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/46.0
    Multiprocess Windows: 0/2 (Disabled)
    Safe Mode: false
  • jcreton
    I have been trying to sync since yesterday(april 29th) and all attempts ended with:
    "Error connecting to server. Check your Internet connection."

    I had added some new entries with attachments on my local Zotero and I saw that some did arrived on the Zotero on-line server, but not the last ones.

    Report ID : 1500834462
  • jcreton
    Synchronisation seems to work again: you can close Report ID : 1500834462
  • adamsmith
    (@Dan -- have you been getting enough of the about:support dumps or should we still be encouraging people to do that?)
  • tritemio
    Same error here. Just installed latest Firefox and Zotero on Mac OS X 10.10.5.

    There are 3 IDs generated by the error:

    2121969335

    170495148

    2094373124

    Let me know if you need more about:config logs.
  • dstillman
    If there's someone experiencing this who's comfortable performing advanced troubleshooting (running code in the Firefox dev tools, installing alternative Firefox builds, etc.), could you email us at support@zotero.org? This seems to be some sort of bug in Firefox 46, but we've never seen anything like this, and we're going to have to do some lower-level troubleshooting to be able to report it to Mozilla or work around it.

    For everyone else, I would recommend installing Zotero Standalone (if you don't have it already) and syncing with that for the time being. Note that, if you haven't used Standalone before, it will ask to share your existing data directory when you first start it, and you should say yes.

    We don't need any further Report IDs or about:support output at this time, but keep an eye on this thread for updates in case we need further information. You can subscribe to the thread in the left sidebar. (Note that you'll only receive one email notification after each time you visit the forums.)
  • fgciteulike
    edited May 1, 2016
    Same sync error since yesterday April 30th
    (Firefox 46 / Xubuntu 16.04)
    Report ID 1891866620
    FG
  • aurso
    Hi, I get the same error since a few days. I am using the latest versions of Firefox and Zotero. Report ID 1615142869
    Thank you,
    Guillaume
  • adamsmith
    Please before posting see Dan's post above, in particular:
    We don't need any further Report IDs or about:support output at this time, but keep an eye on this thread for updates in case we need further information. You can subscribe to the thread in the left sidebar.
    and
    If there's someone experiencing this who's comfortable performing advanced troubleshooting (running code in the Firefox dev tools, installing alternative Firefox builds, etc.), could you email us at support@zotero.org?
  • sharachchandra
    Just confirming that downgrading Firefox to v45.0.2 solves this problem.
  • arunmukh
    Cannot Sync. Recently I have added few links and other resources but cannot link. Always showing red ! sign. I have reported. Report ID: 591298593.
    Please let me know how to Sync because I need to add those links and resources with my paper.
  • dstillman
    OK, thanks to some great help from the dev list we may be close to identifying the problem here.

    It'd be great if we could get network logs from a few people experiencing this. Steps are here:

    https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Debugging/HTTP_logging

    If the steps don't make sense to you, you can ignore this.

    If you're comfortable running them, you should trigger the sync error immediately after starting Firefox this way (before loading other webpages) and then quit Firefox and restart Firefox normally to stop the logging. You can then open the log in a text editor, X out any passwords, resave it, and email it to support@zotero.org.
  • eugenias
    Have the same problem!
    Report ID 143813307
    After log generation Report ID 1478113858
    I have emailed the log following your instructions. Hope you can help!
  • dstillman
    OK, a proper fix is coming from Mozilla — reverting a change in Firefox 46 — but we've made a temporary server-side change that will hopefully fix this for most people immediately. You might see intermittent errors until it's fixed in Firefox. Let us know if you're still having trouble.

    Thanks to everyone for their help debugging this, and our apologies for the inconvenience.
  • fgciteulike
    Now syncing with your temporary server-side fix.
    Thank you !
    FG
  • rewa
    the error message has disappeared now, everything seems normal again. thanks!
  • boombuia
    edited May 4, 2016
    Thanks for the update and temporary fix. I had started getting the errors (again) and was using standalone. Firefox 46 is now syncing (up&down) again.
  • dstillman
    Standalone isn't affected by this, so that wouldn't be the same issue. Closing this now.
This discussion has been closed.