I cannot make Zotero work on my Mac
Hello,
I have tried redownloading Zotero a bunch, I have now figured that it will not fix my problem.
I keep getting this message when opening up the program:
"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/Profile/Zotero"
I have tried changing every major file and folder to read and write but it still gives me the message, can it really be true that I have to change every single file relating to Zotero, I Do not think that this solution seems right?
I hope someone can help me, thank you.
I have tried redownloading Zotero a bunch, I have now figured that it will not fix my problem.
I keep getting this message when opening up the program:
"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/Profile/Zotero"
I have tried changing every major file and folder to read and write but it still gives me the message, can it really be true that I have to change every single file relating to Zotero, I Do not think that this solution seems right?
I hope someone can help me, thank you.
This would pretty much never happen for a new installation. You'd have to have transferred Zotero files from another computer (generally not using Migration Assistant, which tends to get this right) or otherwise changed the permissions, including perhaps for some old installation of Zotero. Regardless, the Zotero data directory and all folders and files within it need to be readable and writable by your current Mac user account. You can do that via File → Get Info in the Finder, but that's just a general macOS thing that we can't really help with.
Thank you for the response though
Thank you so much for your help, I just do not know what to do now
ls -la ~/Zotero
drwxr-xr-x 9 root wheel 288 7 Feb 16:54 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 21 sofie staff 672 12 Apr 10:37 ..
drwxr-xr-x 5 root wheel 160 7 Feb 16:54 locate
drwxr-xr-x 40 root wheel 1280 7 Feb 16:54 storage
drwxr-xr-x 17 root wheel 544 7 Feb 16:54 styles
drwxr-xr-x 716 root wheel 22912 7 Feb 16:55 translators
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2510848 7 Feb 16:54 zotero.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2510848 7 Feb 16:54 zotero.sqlite.1.bak
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2510848 7 Feb 16:54 zotero.sqlite.bak
This is what I then get in the terminal
(But how did these files get on this computer? If someone did this for you, you should really get them to help you, since they did this incorrectly. If you actually used Migration Assistant, it would be very surprising that the files ended up like this. We really can't provide general OS usage guidance here.)
sudo chown -R sofie:staff ~/Zotero
You'll need to type your password, which won't appear on screen as you type it. But that should fix this folder. Anything else copied at the same time back in February might be similarly broken, though.
sofie:staff
part of the command would need to be customized to correspond to your standard user.ls -la ~/Zotero
drwxr-xr-x 10 root wheel 320 Nov 27 2023 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 22 steph staff 704 May 28 07:58 ..
drwxr-xr-x 5 root wheel 160 Nov 27 2023 locate
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 96 Nov 27 2023 logs
drwxr-xr-x 53 root wheel 1696 Nov 27 2023 storage
drwxr-xr-x 17 root wheel 544 Nov 27 2023 styles
drwxr-xr-x 701 root wheel 22432 Nov 27 2023 translators
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 4411392 Nov 27 2023 zotero.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 4403200 Nov 27 2023 zotero.sqlite.1.bak
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 4411392 Nov 27 2023 zotero.sqlite.bak
sudo chown -R steph:staff ~/Zotero
ls -la ~/Zotero
now that you have run
sudo chown -R steph:staff ~/Zotero
drwxr-xr-x 10 steph staff 320 Nov 27 2023 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 22 steph staff 704 May 28 11:29 ..
drwxr-xr-x 5 steph staff 160 Nov 27 2023 locate
drwxr-xr-x 3 steph staff 96 Nov 27 2023 logs
drwxr-xr-x 53 steph staff 1696 Nov 27 2023 storage
drwxr-xr-x 17 steph staff 544 Nov 27 2023 styles
drwxr-xr-x 701 steph staff 22432 Nov 27 2023 translators
-rw-r--r-- 1 steph staff 4411392 Nov 27 2023 zotero.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 steph staff 4403200 Nov 27 2023 zotero.sqlite.1.bak
-rw-r--r-- 1 steph staff 4411392 Nov 27 2023 zotero.sqlite.bak
steph@stephs-laptop ~ %