Zotero demands restart after adding pdf of a specific article

giocomai · January 21, 2017

Report ID: 63814881

When I try to add a specific article to Zotero, I get the message:'An error has occurred. Please restart Firefox.' in the middle pane.

When I restart I get the warning: "The Zotero database 'zotero.sqlite' appears to have become corrupted.
Your data was restored from the last automatic backup made on 19/1/2017 at 20:30:07. The damaged file was saved in your Zotero directory."

I finally managed to add the paper, but not the pdf file. So if I try to attach a stored copy of the file after adding the article via "add item by identifier" (inputting the DOI), I get the same error message as above.

Here's the report ID of this second attempt
422712354

Here is the DOI of that article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14683857.2017.1279257

I don't know what it is about that article (or its pdf file), but I don't have any problems with other articles, including from the same journal. Also, the pdf seems to be just fine, as I can open it with any pdf reader.

adamsmith · January 21, 2017

(FWIW, no issue with that PDF for me)

giocomai · January 21, 2017

thanks. Still odd. Perhaps related to OS/pdf indexing library version, or something.
whatever, if it doesn't happen with others, I don't mind. I'll get back to this if it appears again.

dstillman · January 22, 2017

Nothing to do with the paper or PDF tools — your database is corrupted. Try running it through the DB Repair Tool.

giocomai · January 22, 2017

thanks for the suggestions. my database was too large for the online repair tool, so I proceeded with the "manual repair instructions". All seems to be fine now, and I managed to add the above-mentioned article that I believed was the culprit.

Interesting that I could still add and remove other articles without troubles, but I guess that's the way it goes with corrupted databases, with error popping out for different reasons.

Thanks again!