Unable to successfully install Zotero
I'm working with a user (I'm a librarian) who is trying to install Zotero on their Mac. Every time they click on the downloaded file to install, they receive the following message:
[Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIFile.create]" nsresult: "0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/ipc.js :: Zotero.IPC</this.init :: line 36" data: no]
Zotero.IPC</this.init@chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/ipc.js:36:9
this.init<@chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/zotero.js:372:7
From previous event:
ZoteroService@file:///Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/Resources/components/zotero-service.js:347:7
@chrome://zotero/content/include.js:4:14
We tried to restore their data folder -- I could not even find one on their computer. Thank you for any help you can provide!
[Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIFile.create]" nsresult: "0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/ipc.js :: Zotero.IPC</this.init :: line 36" data: no]
Zotero.IPC</this.init@chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/ipc.js:36:9
this.init<@chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/zotero.js:372:7
From previous event:
ZoteroService@file:///Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/Resources/components/zotero-service.js:347:7
@chrome://zotero/content/include.js:4:14
We tried to restore their data folder -- I could not even find one on their computer. Thank you for any help you can provide!
Are they running any non-standard security software?
Did they move their Zotero data directory to a nonstandard location (e.g., a network share), or did this just happen the first they opened Zotero?
If they can access the Help menu, can they provide a Debug ID for Zotero startup using the "Restart with Logging Enabled…" option? Otherwise, see Reporting Startup Errors for a way to provide a Debug ID.
Thank you again for your help!
No such file or directory -
USER@USER-air ~ % /Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/zotero -ZoteroDebug
2023-02-26 01:38:33.994 zotero[8192:489895] *** WARNING: Textured window is getting an implicitly transparent titlebar. This will break when linking against newer SDKs. Use NSWindow's -titlebarAppearsTransparent=YES instead.
JavaScript warning: resource://zotero/loader.jsm -> resource://zotero/bluebird/util.js, line 205: unreachable code after return statement
JavaScript warning: resource://zotero/loader.jsm -> resource://zotero/bluebird/util.js, line 205: unreachable code after return statement
JavaScript warning: chrome://zotero/content/zoteroPane.js, line 6226: unreachable code after return statement
And the following appeared in the Zotero window with not being able to access any of the menu options.
The Zotero database cannot be opened.
Make sure you have read and write permissions for all files in the Zotero data directory and that security software isn’t preventing Zotero from accessing that directory.
Data Directory: /Users/Zotero
I also installed the new version after Ellysa told me - the above message popped up. So it did not change anything but the message changed from what the first message was.
Not sure what is going on because this is a new computer (macbook air) that I have never used zotero on.
I am not sure what the problem is with this computer specifically, I had it working in an old 2017 hp laptop.
And yes I did change the username to User to post in this public forum.
There is no data directory /Users/<username>/Zotero and I still cant acces any buttons as it shuts itself down.
Is there anything else I can do to make Zotero work? I start my research studies this year and really was hoping for it to work. Thank you for your patience and time.
You can also try creating a "Zotero" folder in the home folder yourself, which might let Zotero create files within it and avoid the permissions problem, but you might run into trouble with other software later if you don't fix the root problem.
To be clear, this absolutely isn't a problem in Zotero itself, so no Zotero update is going to fix this. If Zotero can't even create a data directory, there's no way for it to work. It's not that you changed the username to User — you just removed the username portion of the page altogether, which makes it a totally different and wrong path. That's why it was confusing.
So I had to unlock basically everything in my user account and allow read and write permission. I also had to unlock Zotero app as well as manually create a zotero folder in the user account applications. Hopefully this will work with newer updates too.
Thank you so much for all you help!!!!!