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!!
  • At what point is it freezing?

    See Reporting Startup Errors. You'll likely need to follow the "Alternative: Logging to the Terminal" section.
  • It froze when I searched and when I tried to add a pdf to an entry. It did not freeze on startup
  • Can you be more specific? See Steps to Reproduce for the kind of precise description we need.

    And see the thing I linked to. No matter when the freeze occurs, we'd need debug output to say more.
  • Here is the debug ID: D1115334843

    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.
  • The debug output would have to be for the problem occurring.

    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.
  • I was able to replicate the problem by scrolling through my library. This time the spinning circle appeared first and the message "There was a problem connecting to the server "idisk.mac.com" appeared 1-2 minutes after the spinning rainbow circle.

    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

  • 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.
    Right, that's why I say you'll need to log to the terminal instead. See the section I referred to.
  • Please tell me the specific section of the specific page you are expecting me to be following.

    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.
  • If Zotero is crashing, such that the debug window opened by -ZoteroDebug closes as well, you can log to a terminal window instead. Upload the debug output somewhere and provide a link in your forums thread or email the output to support@zotero.org with a link to your forum thread.
    And then from Logging to a Terminal Window:
    To capture output when Zotero is crashing or hanging, you can use -ZoteroDebugText > ~/Desktop/zotero-debug.txt to redirect output to a file.
    That will create a zotero-debug.txt file on your desktop with the debug output even though Zotero is hanging. Send us the file with a link to this thread.
  • I literally just did that. Please see my previous post where I say that I literally did that. My computer is still opening Zotero a second time.
  • I would be happy to send you a file, but I will need different instructions. Thank you again for your help.
  • edited August 1, 2022
    You're misunderstanding this. This isn't something you run while it's frozen — that will just to try open Zotero a second time. The whole point of this is to start Zotero from the command line with logging to the terminal enabled, so that when it freezes you can send us the file with the debug output.
  • Ok thank you. When you said "The debug output would have to be for the problem occurring." I thought you meant the problem had to be occurring while debugging.

    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




  • I reproduced the error. Closed Zotero. Ran the steps in 2b
    Sorry, but you're still not getting this. The debug output we need is for the problem occurring — not for starting Zotero after it occurs (which obviously could just be a normal Debug ID). The whole point here — the only thing you to do — is to reproduce the problem while logging to a file, and then to send us that file.
  • You're going to need to give me more detailed instructions then.

    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.
  • I am not an idiot and I would really appreciate it if you would not keep telling me that I don't "get it". Thank you. I love Zotero and am a very early adopter. I've used Terminal for years.
  • I'm looking forward to your further instructions.
  • I can’t explain it more clearly than I have, and than we do in the instructions. You literally just start Zotero using the documented command, reproduce the problem, and send us the file. You don’t run the command while Zotero is open. You don’t reproduce the problem and then provide debug output for some other, unrelated Zotero session. You’re doing things that nothing says to do and not doing the one thing we say 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.
  • Wow. Things seem to have gone off the rails here in our communication and I'm hoping we can start afresh.

    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.
  • You're entering -ZoteroDebug instead of -ZoteroDebugText.
  • Thank you. I apologize for the error. Here is the debug output https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D8134687_09829056_0356379
  • That just looks like a sync completing normally. Are you sure you triggered the freeze while generating this?

    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.
  • Hello. I am attempting to debug with my institutions Digital Scholarship Librarian. Yes, I'm sure you're right the problem is outdated links to my idisk. I've used Zotero for a very long time.

    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?
  • Here's a link to the latest debug file just in case you may need it https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D8134687_09829056_0367661
  • I deleted all the attachments using the codes you provided and have been using Zotero for a couple of days without problem. (I wanted to use it a bit before reporting success.)

    Thank you very much for finding those codes. Since this seems to be a very individualized solution feel free to delete this thread.
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