Journal articles do not open with zotero

jguan08
Hi, I cannot open or download journal articles directly from the web and I cannot open non-pdf format articles from my Zotero reference manager. An error message pops up that says no connection or connection timed out. When I delete my Zotero from my desktop and delete the chrome/ safari/ firefox extensions, articles are able to open from the web. Articles from online zotero manager are also unable to be opened even with all extensions and desktop manager deleted.
  • dstillman
    I'm not sure why you think that's related to Zotero? Do you even have the Zotero Connector installed in your browser? It's not clear from the screenshots you sent via email that you do.

    It looks like your school’s proxy server is just down — I'm not able to connect to it either. You should contact your library.
  • dstillman
    (This would generally only be related to Zotero if the Zotero Connector previously auto-detected a proxy server for you and your university since switched to a different proxy server. In that case, the Zotero Connector might still redirect you to the old server when you tried to access an unproxied site, though it should show a notification whenever it was doing so. And in any case, that wouldn't happen if you disabled the Zotero Connector or didn't have it installed in the first place.)
  • jguan08
    The screenshot is what happens when I have my Chrome Zotero connector and desktop connector installed. When I uninstall them, I can access the journal articles via the school library website. When my Zotero is installed (connector and on desktop), no journal articles open from my school library website nor the previously saved articles in my Zotero. I can relay the message about the proxy to the school I.T. and library, however, I do not believe the school proxy server is down because of what I stated before. And just trying it again now, I can open articles when I uninstall zotero, but when zotero is installed, it just doesnt open.

    Also, others can access journal articles on Zotero while some of us cannot. I am simultaneously working with the school I.T. and library to resolve this. If you have any other information that might be helpful, please let me know.
  • jguan08
    I also have tried another reference manager and I have no issues opening articles from the school website.
  • jguan08
    My school library just responded with this: We are no longer using EZproxy web URLs, so this may be the cause of your problem.

    Do you think this is the reason? And do you know how I can overcome this?
  • dstillman
    Yes, so it's exactly what I say above — your university no longer uses that proxy server, but the Zotero Connector is still redirecting to that. It's possible that the normal notification it shows when it redirects you via a proxy doesn't appear if the server can't actually be reached. We'll look into that.

    In any case, you can fix this by going to the Zotero Connector preferences (by right-clicking on the save button and selecting Options/Preferences), going to the Proxies tab, and deleting the existing entry for your university's proxy server.

    (This also wouldn't have happened in Safari, which doesn't support automatic proxy redirection.)
  • jguan08
    Thank you, this worked!
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