Problem Getting Started with Safari on Mac

I installed Zotero, but can't find any way to use it. The "Getting Started" has no information on how to actually get started. I am using Safari 13+ and Mohave 10.14.6, and there is apparently no Safari Connector.

With Zotero and Safari both open, I see nothing relating to Zotero in Safari, and I can't find anything in Zotero documentation to help. Nothing but references to the nonexistent Connector or to the Zotero Save button which supposedly should be in the browser tool bar, but it is not.
  • edited February 8, 2020
    In all three places where you can download the Zotero Connector — the start page you get when you first run Zotero, the page that opens when you select "Install Browser Connector" from the Tools menu, and the main download page — clicking the install button in Safari takes you to this support page, which explains the current situation. As explained there, there's a beta version of the Zotero Connector for Safari 13 that you can use if you want to. It will be released soon with the next production version of Zotero.
  • I've been to that support page, that's where I downloaded the program/Connector. I installed it, and ... nothing. The support page doesn't help.
  • edited February 8, 2020
    We can't know what you've done unless you tell us. That page explains that you need to install the Zotero beta to use the beta version of the Zotero Connector. You haven't said anything about doing that. So you'll need to back up and explain exactly what you've done and what version of Zotero you're using for us to be able to help you. Plenty of people have installed the beta version successfully from the given instructions, so saying "the support page doesn't help" isn't really useful.
  • Sorry, but I thought I told you what I did. I went to the support page you referenced, downloaded the beta version, and installed it. I didn't specifically say "beta version," because that's all that the referenced support page is for. It gave no guidance on what to expect or do after installing, so I'm sorry that "the support page doesn't help" isn't really useful to you, but what do you suggest saying about that situation?
  • No, we really need you to be more explicit.

    Your first post made no mention of even seeing the support page — you said "there is apparently no Safari Connector" and that there was no information in the documentation about this, which strongly suggested you hadn't seen that page. If you had, that's something we'd need to know.

    You then said that you downloaded the program from the support page, but there's no download link there — there's a link to this forum thread, which 1) links to yet another page with the Zotero beta and 2) says to enable it from the Extensions pane in Safari. You haven't said whether you've looked in the Extensions pane. And you still haven't provided your Zotero version.

    (To be clear, it's fine not to know how to do this — I'm just explaining the kind of information we need for us to be able to help you in the future.)
  • My second post explicitly said that I went to the support page. That page said:

    "A beta version of the Zotero Connector for Safari 13 is now available" (with "now available" being the hyperlink). I used that link, and downloaded the beta version. I said that I downloaded the "program/Connector" there, because the link in the original support page implies that it takes you to the beta download, and it appears that the beta version does not have a Connector separate from the Zotero program. Pardon me for not recalling that it required an intermediate link or two to download the program. I thought that getting it from the support page you referenced made it clear that it was the beta version for Safari. The version was today's current version, but if you need more than that, the downloaded file was Zotero-5.0.83-beta.8+4290f26d7.dmg.

    In trying to figure out why nothing at all was showing up in Safari, I did search through the Extensions options (I don't know what you mean by "Extensions pane" – I have to go through the Preferences menu in Safari to get to the extensions list and options). The Zotero Connector is not there, nor could I find it in the App store or any other list of available extensions.

  • If you're going to post here, you're going to have to take our word for it when we say we need more information. We help many people here a day, and we know the kind of clarity we need to help people effectively. Making assumptions about what people have done risks wasting everyone's time. So no, we can't assume you've clicked through multiple pages and downloaded and started a beta version if you don't say explicitly that you've done so and/or provide the version number we ask for, and we can't assume you've looked in the Extensions pane if you've made no mention of that. If you've done all that, great, but we can't make that assumption.
    I don't know what you mean by "Extensions pane"
    "the Extensions pane of the Safari preferences", as it says in the forums post linked twice above that you say you've followed.
    I have to go through the Preferences menu in Safari to get to the extensions list and options
    You have to open the Safari preferences and click on the Extensions tab, yes, but what options are you referring to?

    But OK, so we've established you've downloaded (and started?) the beta, and we've established that you've looked in the Extensions pane in the Safari preferences and don't see the Zotero Connector listed there.

    Restart your computer, restart the Zotero beta, and then start Safari and look again in Extensions. If you don't see the Zotero Connector listed there, delete all copies of Zotero from Applications, download the beta again, and start it again. If you still don't see the Zotero Connector listed in Safari, provide a Report ID from the Zotero beta and the exact version of Safari you're running.
  • I already did that, but nothing changed. Instead, I downloaded Zotero for Firefox, which works, but now I have to switch to Firefox, which will not be as easy as it sounds. Is it possible to have Zotero for both browsers, or does one conflict with the other?
  • Yes, you can have Zotero extensions running on all (supported) browsers on your computer. If you want to troubleshoot the Safari extension, see the last paragraph in dstillman's post. (Explicitly) confirm that deleted and re-installed the Zotero beta, that you still don't see the connector in the Safari extension list and then provide a Report ID (see https://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_problems#provide_a_report_id ) from the Zotero beta and the exact version of Safari you're running.
  • The instructions given to get the Safari Connector working say "delete all copies of Zotero from Applications ...". That would mean that I need to delete the Zotero that I've been using with Firefox. I tried deleting and re-installing the Safari version long ago, and deleted it again when nothing worked. Do I really need to delete the Firefox version to try to re-install the Zotero Connector for Safari? Will I lose what I've saved in Zotero through Firefox? The Applications folder in Finder simply shows "Zotero," it doesn't distinguish between browser versions.

    Also, just a couple days ago I upgraded to macOS Catalina 10.15.3. Running Safari 13.0.5.
  • edited February 27, 2020
    I'm just saying to delete any copies of the Zotero application you have in Applications and reinstall only the beta version. It has nothing to do with Firefox (which depends on the Zotero Connector browser extension that you installed in Firefox) or your data (which is stored elsewhere).
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