Old connection to idisk error has reappeared
Zotero is freezing and the extremely old error message that Zotero can't connect to "idisk.mac.com" has reappeared. (I couldn't figure out how to get rid of it for the longest time but it magically disappeared on its own a couple of years ago. Now it's back.)
Currently I get the error message and then Zotero freezes with the rainbow circle of death swirling and mocking me.
Using Mac OS 10.15.7 and Zotero 6.0.11
I've searched the discussions and the most recent post I found is 9 years old.
What should I do?
Thanks in advance!!
Currently I get the error message and then Zotero freezes with the rainbow circle of death swirling and mocking me.
Using Mac OS 10.15.7 and Zotero 6.0.11
I've searched the discussions and the most recent post I found is 9 years old.
What should I do?
Thanks in advance!!
See Reporting Startup Errors. You'll likely need to follow the "Alternative: Logging to the Terminal" section.
And see the thing I linked to. No matter when the freeze occurs, we'd need debug output to say more.
The problem is not reproducing currently, but here are the two things that happened yesterday and earlier today:
1. Open Zotero. Begin typing text into the search bar. While I'm still typing the word (an author's name) the error message can't connect to idisk.mac.com server appears. I think I must have hit ok or something to get the message to disappear. Then the swirling rainbow ball of death appears. I wait several minutes and it doesn't disappear. I open "Force Quit" on my mac and Zotero shows as unresponsive. I force-quit. (This sequence happened more than once.)
2. Open Zotero. Scroll to entry in main library. Open finder window on my mac. I navigate to the folder on my mac containing the pdf that corresponds to the Zotero entry. I drag the pdf over to the entry in Zotero. The error message can't connect to idisk.mac.com server appears. I think I must have hit ok or something to get the message to disappear. Then the swirling rainbow ball of death appears. I wait several minutes and it doesn't disappear. I open "Force Quit" on my mac and Zotero shows as unresponsive. I force-quit.
From (1), I'd guess that there's a specific linked-file attachment in your library that's linked to a path in the old iDisk location. You might be able to reproduce this by scrolling through your entire library, or by clicking an item and pressing + on the keyboard and then doing so.
(2) is a bit more strange, unless you're copying from some unusual location, but let's focus on (1) first.
However, I was unable to debug. I entered /Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/zotero -ZoteroDebug
into the Terminal (as I did before with no problem). This time I ran it while the spinning circle was still spinning and Zotero was frozen.
A window popped up saying: Zotero was already running and I cannot open a second Zotero.
In Terminal I received this message: ###!!! [Parent][RunMessage] Error: Channel closing: too late to send/recv, messages will be lost
I did both of the following:
A. I followed the steps in 2b on this page https://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_problems#reporting_startup_errors
2b. If you can't access the Help menu, or if the problem doesn't occur during a restart, start Zotero via the command line. The steps for that depend on your platform:
macOS
Open Terminal via Spotlight or from /Applications/Utilities.
Go to the Terminal menu and open Preferences. In Settings→Window, make sure Scrollback is set to “Limit to available memory”.
Paste the following into the terminal and hit return.
/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/zotero -ZoteroDebug
B. I followed the steps here https://www.zotero.org/support/debug_output#logging_to_a_terminal_window
macOS
Open Terminal via Spotlight or /Applications/Utilities.
Paste /Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/zotero -ZoteroDebugText into the Terminal window.
Press Return
To capture output when Zotero is crashing or hanging, you can use -ZoteroDebugText > ~/Desktop/zotero-debug.txt to redirect output to a file.
In both cases I received the error message Close Zotero. A copy of Zotero is already open. Only one copy of Zotero can be open at a time.
I did not close Zotero because one of your earlier instructions said I had to debug while the problem was in process.
Thank you again for your help. I look forward to further instructions.
I reproduced the error. Closed Zotero. Ran the steps in 2b on https://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_problems#reporting_startup_errors
The debug output seemed to work fine. The ID is D63508270. I also copied the debug report to a textfile that I posted here https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D8134687_09829056_0234667
You've told me not to run the debugger while Zotero is open. You've told me not to run the debugger while Zotero is closed.
I don't know what you want me to do.
If you’re still confused, ask a technical friend to read the instructions and help you. But there’s just nothing else to say here.
The page doesn't say run it in Terminal then replicate the error in the Zotero when it opens. That piece of instruction is what I needed.
Here is what I did:
Following the instructions for Mac OS here https://www.zotero.org/support/debug_output#logging_to_a_terminal_window
in Terminal I entered /Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/zotero -ZoteroDebug > ~/Desktop/zotero-debug.txt
When Zotero opened, I immediately scrolled through my library until the spinning rainbow circle appeared.
In Terminal this message appeared: "JavaScript warning: resource://zotero/loader.jsm -> resource://zotero/bluebird/util.js, line 205: unreachable code after return statement
ctschroeder@Carolines-MBP-2 ~ % /Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/zotero -ZoteroDebug > ~/Desktop/zotero-debug.txt
JavaScript warning: resource://zotero/loader.jsm -> resource://zotero/bluebird/util.js, line 205: unreachable code after return statement"
The debug text file is empty.
If I misunderstood what to type into the Terminal, I would appreciate a correction.
Thank you.
-ZoteroDebug
instead of-ZoteroDebugText
.Anyway, I would guess you could figure this out just by scrolling more slowly. Scroll line by line, and when it freezes, take note of the bottom line or two. Then try again and determine the exact line you need to scroll into view to get it to freeze.
Assuming you have the Attachments column shown, you may be able to hide that column in order to scroll completely through the list. If so, you can then click on the child attachment you think is responsible, which will likely reproduce the freeze.
Once you find the attachment item, you can delete it from the web library, which won't freeze in the same way.
It's also possible there are multiple affected items.
Just guessing, but it might be these extremely old attachments in your library, which are stored using an outdated Mac-specific path format:
4HD7QU26
5SV448TP
73K5XVUC
7TBVTCAX
89XDE7S2
8DNNP5FM
BKH3RAQZ
BTU3HQ9R
BVE7ST2X
DBHKGPDA
DE42UJZ8
HTTMRSMZ
IR9JZ6AC
JCAQQRMS
QN8C7AU4
SS5JB2GP
XCUZS3TB
XE4BDWVI
You could try pasting these in, one at a time, into the Zotero search bar in All Fields & Tags mode.
To produce this text file we searched for one of the codes (73K5XVUC) and did not click on the entry or attachment (if you click on the attachment it's an endless loop of hanging), Zotero hung, we waited for the idisk error message, hit ok, went back to the main library and scrolled until Zotero hung again, got the idisk error message, clicked ok. We were at line 9476 in the debug text file. We scrolled in the main library again and again producing the error two more times, and the debug file updated, but there was nothing in the debug file that helped us.
I am searching for the codes and then searching for the names online and deleting. My DS librarian is wondering where you got the codes and if it's at all possible to search the online library for the codes?
Thank you very much for finding those codes. Since this seems to be a very individualized solution feel free to delete this thread.