Can’t get Zotero 6 extension for Safari to install

GrantJ
edited March 24, 2022
Hi,

Is Zotero 6 & its Safari extension incompatible with older versions of Safari and/or macOS?

Safari: 14.1.12
MacOS: Mojave
Zotero: 6
Mac Book Air Early 2015, 11" 4Gb.

(I’d update to Catalina, but my current impression is to run well it needs more SSD space than I can easily clear space for and some say running under 4Gb it’s sluggish, but that’s a discussion for another forum.)

My story so far… a frustrating night :-(

I installed Zotero 6, easy enough.

Started Safari. OK. Activated the extension, and *ugh*. Consumed vast amounts of memory, far more than without the extension, the system thrashed, locked up, etc. After several hard reboots I figured you can knock Safari over as it starts, tell it not to open windows, disable the extension, then re-open the windows from History. OK, Safari back up without the Zotero extension.

Looking at it, Zotero has installed an old version of the extension (5.0.92), or Safari is picking up an old extension (with Zotero not having installed the new 6.x one in place of it).

Safari tells me I have to uninstall the extension I have to uninstall Zotero and start over. Done that, but I’m still seeing the 5.0.92 Zotero extension. So as far as I can tell I’m stuck.

If this issue is about Safari or macOS versions I see nothing on the website giving a heads-up about that.
  • dstillman
    edited March 24, 2022
    5.0.92 is the current version. Connector versions are unrelated to app versions.

    Since this is a macOS bug, I'm afraid all we can suggest is upgrading macOS. The extension has been available on 10.14 and later on the beta channel, but we actually meant to limit it to Big Sur and later on the stable release. Reports of this problem have trailed off over the last year, suggesting that Big Sur mostly or entirely fixed it.

    We'll be marking this as compatible with only Big Sur and up in the next release.
  • GrantJ
    Thanks.

    You can’t put Big Sur on that machine :-(

    Ultimately, it is probably another reason I’m more-or-less forced to buy another computer, even though I’d much prefer not to have to spend the $$. It feels to me macOS these days wants excessive RAM and SSD storage to simply run, never mind run well :-(

    Has anyone has gotten it work on 10.14?
  • dstillman
    Yes, people ran the extension on 10.14.

    To be clear, have you uninstall Zotero from Applications, restarted your computer, and reinstalled the app from the download page?

    But note that Safari 14 is no longer receiving security updates and isn't safe to use on the web. If you're not able to upgrade macOS, you should use another browser — all other major browsers should still work on 10.14 and are receiving updates.
  • GrantJ
    Sorry to be a bother and come back to this, but now it seems Zotero won’t install the extension at all. Or at least that’s the impression I have so far.

    I have tried four times today to delete the Zotero app, restart the computer, then re-install Zotero and ask it to install the extension. No extension each time.

    I’ve tried quitting Safari before restarting as well: no difference.

    Is there some other thing I can do that make the re-installing of the extension more reliable?

    Perhaps this is a side-effect of Zotero 6.0.4? Should I go back to an older version?
  • GrantJ
    Never mind me :-( I will try update from Catalina to Big Sur despite gossip suggesting things are slow under Big Sur for these 4Gb machines. Lets hope that puts this behind me. (I’m a bit confused why earlier sites suggested you can’t run Big Sur on this machine, but I’ll never work that one out now.)
  • mibigo
    same here; unfortunately some older machines cannot update to Big Sur... my Mac is a late 2013 one so it's not supported for upgrade to Big Sur.. I have Safari 15.04 and Zotero worked like a cham until today when it upgraded to 6.0.4; as a result the extension disappeared although it was present in safari preferences; then I checked/unchecked the box a few times and nothing happened. I then uninstalled Zotero, restar the machin re-downloaded and installed again three times and the extension never reappeared back... It is available on Firefox though, but not on Safari.. It seems to me something went wrong with the latest Zotero update, with the 6.0.2 the extension was there; now I don't remember the I upgraded safari to 15.04 (I mean if prior to zotero 6.0.2); however the extension disappeared today when the 6.0.4 was updated. maybe is there something wrong in this update?

    I can't upgrade to Big-Sur or later.. and I will not buy another expensive Mac, as this one works like a cham with everything else...
  • dstillman
    edited April 1, 2022
    @mibigo: As mentioned above, you can still use the Zotero beta, where the Safari extension has been available on earlier macOS versions for the last two years. We intended to release it only for Big Sur and later in the release version of Zotero 6, but enabled it for earlier versions by mistake. We fixed that in 6.0.4. See Safari Compatibility for more details. This is all due to a macOS bug outside of our control.
    my Mac is a late 2013 one so it's not supported for upgrade to Big Sur
    Big Sur can be installed on all late-2013 Macs.
  • mibigo
    thanks Dan, I installed the old beta and now the extension is there.

    But I had done that few month ago either, but then Zotero upgraded automatically a few times until today; how can I prevent it from updating to 6,0,4?

    and sorry in any case my Mac is a 14,2 Mac (late 2013 as far as I can see from Mac info window) but it doesn't upgrade to Big Sur; I already tried a couple times..
  • dstillman
    You would've had to have installed the release version manually. The beta doesn't update to the release version.
    sorry in any case my Mac is a 14,2 Mac (late 2013 as far as I can see from Mac info window) but it doesn't upgrade to Big Sur
    Ah, sorry, it looks like the late-2013 iMac is indeed the one exception.
  • mibigo
    might be, I can't remember now. Anyhow thanks, I will pay attention to not upgrade anymore.

  • dstillman
    The problem isn't that you upgraded — it's that you switched from the beta to the release version. If you stay on the beta you'll be able to continue using the Safari extension with older macOS versions, though as explained on the support page, you may need to fix the extension more frequently after app updates.
  • mibigo
    I see, I thought I hadn't done that switch.. each time I started Zotero in the last weeks I saw the updating window saying beta version 6.0.X followed by a lot of alphanumeric characters... so I thought I was still on the the beta; but I'm certainly wrong.. but I don't want want to miss your time. Thank you very much again.
Sign In or Register to comment.