Zotero freezes when trying to search items
My Zotero standalone (5.0.35.1 on an institutional PC) always freezes when I hit the "advanced search" icon. It also almost always freezes when I hit the "Search" button after reaching to the advanced search via the toolbar.
I tried to send an error report and post the report ID here, but an error message saying "Invalid response from repository" pops up.
Instead, I'm pasting the error report below; I noticed that there are several error messages saying something about the proxy and I guess that there might be some problems with the institutional proxy network. It would be great if any of you could help me figure out whether I need to seek help from our network administrator, or there is a way to solve this problem by myself.
Just FYI, I also have occasional troubles syncing the files and pdfs to another Zotero on a different PC; I'm not sure these two problems are related.
Thanks for your help!
(My error report seems to be too long to paste here so I will be posting it as a reply.)
I tried to send an error report and post the report ID here, but an error message saying "Invalid response from repository" pops up.
Instead, I'm pasting the error report below; I noticed that there are several error messages saying something about the proxy and I guess that there might be some problems with the institutional proxy network. It would be great if any of you could help me figure out whether I need to seek help from our network administrator, or there is a way to solve this problem by myself.
Just FYI, I also have occasional troubles syncing the files and pdfs to another Zotero on a different PC; I'm not sure these two problems are related.
Thanks for your help!
(My error report seems to be too long to paste here so I will be posting it as a reply.)
[JavaScript Error: "WebSocket connection closed: 1006 "]
[JavaScript Error: "s3.amazonaws.com:443 uses an invalid security certificate.
The certificate is not trusted because the issuer certificate is unknown.
The server might not be sending the appropriate intermediate certificates.
An additional root certificate may need to be imported.
Error code: SEC_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ISSUER
"]
[JavaScript Error: "Unexpected status code 0 for GET https://api.zotero.org/users/174477/items/6SDAL44N/file" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/storage/zfs.js" line: 188}]
Zotero.Sync.Storage.Mode.ZFS.prototype.downloadFileSEC_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ISSUER
"]
[JavaScript Error: "S3 returned 0 for 1/2B6I9FUH -- retrying download" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/storage/zfs.js" line: 167}]
Zotero.Sync.Storage.Mode.ZFS.prototype.downloadFileSEC_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ISSUER
"]
[JavaScript Error: "S3 returned 0 for 1/6TJNQ4VV -- retrying download" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/storage/zfs.js" line: 167}]
Zotero.Sync.Storage.Mode.ZFS.prototype.downloadFileSEC_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ISSUER
"]
[JavaScript Error: "S3 returned 0 for 1/6UUHJ3ZC -- retrying download" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/storage/zfs.js" line: 167}]
Zotero.Sync.Storage.Mode.ZFS.prototype.downloadFileSEC_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ISSUER
"]
[JavaScript Error: "S3 returned 0 for 1/2F55H3GG -- retrying download" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/storage/zfs.js" line: 167}]
Zotero.Sync.Storage.Mode.ZFS.prototype.downloadFile</listener<.onStop<@chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/storage/zfs.js:167:8
Zotero.Sync.Storage.StreamListener.prototype._onStop@chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/storage/streamListener.js:242:5
Zotero.Sync.Storage.StreamListener.prototype.onStateChange@chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/storage/streamListener.js:119:5
reportErrors@chrome://zotero/content/zoteroPane.js:4719:13
oncommand@chrome://zotero/content/standalone/standalone.xul:1:1
[JavaScript Error: "s3.amazonaws.com:443 uses an invalid security certificate.
The certificate is not trusted because the issuer certificate is unknown.
The server might not be sending the appropriate intermediate certificates.
An additional root certificate may need to be imported.
Error code: SEC_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ISSUER
"]
[JavaScript Error: "Unexpected status code 0 for GET https://api.zotero.org/users/174477/items/2B6I9FUH/file" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/storage/zfs.js" line: 188}]
Zotero.Sync.Storage.Mode.ZFS.prototype.downloadFileSEC_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ISSUER
"]
[JavaScript Error: "S3 returned 0 for 1/6TJNQ4VV -- retrying download" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/storage/zfs.js" line: 167}]
Zotero.Sync.Storage.Mode.ZFS.prototype.downloadFileSEC_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ISSUER
"]
[JavaScript Error: "S3 returned 0 for 1/6UUHJ3ZC -- retrying download" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/storage/zfs.js" line: 167}]
Zotero.Sync.Storage.Mode.ZFS.prototype.downloadFileSEC_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ISSUER
"]
[JavaScript Error: "S3 returned 0 for 1/75X4B234 -- retrying download" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/storage/zfs.js" line: 167}]
Zotero.Sync.Storage.Mode.ZFS.prototype.downloadFileSEC_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ISSUER
"]
[JavaScript Error: "S3 returned 0 for 1/2F55H3GG -- retrying download" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/storage/zfs.js" line: 167}]
Zotero.Sync.Storage.Mode.ZFS.prototype.downloadFile 5.0.35.1, platform => Win32, oscpu => Windows NT 6.1; WOW64, locale => en-US, appName => Zotero, appVersion => 5.0.35.1, extensions => Zotero LibreOffice Integration (5.0.10.SA.5.0.35.1, extension), Zotero Word for Windows Integration (5.0.8.SA.5.0.35.1, extension), Shockwave Flash (19.0.0.185, plugin)
In my Firefox, the certificate information for Zotero.org says it is verified by Fortinet. The certificate information for https://api.zotero.org/users/174477/items/6SDAL44N/file (the URL that appears on the error report above) says it is verified by Let's Encrypt.
If I understand the info on the website suggested by @dstillman correctly, it seems that I can try the certificate override to solve the problem. Our network admin told me that they need the URL of the site which I need to override (if I am translating what they said correctly...). I showed them the info on https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/cert_override and they told me that our institution is not using a WebDAV server.
Am I doing the right thing? If so, could anyone tell me the URL or whatever info that I may need for a certificate override?
(I'm not sure why your browser shows Let's Encrypt — which is correct, though not a guaranteed indicator — for api.zotero.org in the browser, but it doesn't particularly matter. Zotero is definitely seeing a custom CA, so that will need to be added to Zotero.)
However, Zotero still freezes most of the time when I hit the "advanced search" icon. Sometimes the icon works, and I can also reach the advanced search via the toolbar. The advanced search function thereafter now works perfectly.
Another problem is that the error report says "No errors have been logged since Zotero started." when I restart Zotero immediately after it froze by hitting the "advanced search" icon (FYI, Report ID: 1121504464).
I know that I'm in a much better situation thanks to all your help, but is there any way to make the "advanced search" icon work?
I opened the "Debug Output" window first, hit the "Advanced Search" icon, and waited for more than three minutes after Zotero froze, but I didn't see any lines being logged.
First, check your database integrity from the Advanced → Files and Folders pane of the Zotero preferences, though that's unlikely to cause a freeze.
And then, though we don't generally recommend this, I would uninstall Zotero and reinstall it from the download page. I don't think anyone else has reported this and there's really nothing that should cause it to happen, so there's not a lot else to try here. Your data and profile settings (e.g., certificate) won't be affected.
What I did is (1) selected "Creator" from the pulldown, (2) typed the family name of the author, (3) hit the "Search" button. The articles written by the author appeared on the bottom half of the Advanced Search window (as expected). So I picked the article of my interest and doubleclicked the filename of the pdf to open it (or I might have doubleclicked the pdf icon)... and then Zotero stopped responding with the "no response" message in the top left of the window frame for more than a few minutes.
I had the Debug Output window working during this process but was not able to copy it because it was frozen. Instead, I have a screenshot of that window with most recent logs. Could you let me know how I can share this info with you? (Is there a way to upload the image here?)