Workaround for Zotero Connector missing in Safari

dstillman Zotero Team
This discussion was created from comments split from: Zotero Connector missing in Safari (macOS Sonoma) — tried everything.
  • HansJoakimPersson
    I've seen countless threads about this issue in Safari, and the fix almost always comes down to completely reinstalling the Zotero app. However, there's a workaround that has consistently worked for me without needing to do that.

    What I've found is that if you enable Safari's Developer menu and allow unsigned extensions, the Zotero Connector suddenly reappears.

    Go to Safari > Settings > Advanced
    Check the box: Show features for web developers
    A new Developer tab item will appear
    From there, select: Developer > Allow Unsigned Extensions

    After doing this, the Zotero Connector becomes immediately visible and functional again, you don't even need to restart Safari.

    I’m not entirely sure whether this triggers a refresh of Safari’s extension loading mechanism or if it's related to how the Zotero extension is signed, but either way, it works.

    Important: Only do this if you know what you're doing, and please avoid installing any other unsigned extensions unless you fully trust the source.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    the fix almost always comes down to completely reinstalling the Zotero app
    Note that we also suggest compressing → deleting → uncompressing as an alternative. I'd recommend that over toggling developer settings for most people.
    I’m not entirely sure whether this triggers a refresh of Safari’s extension loading mechanism
    It'd be worth checking if it still works after disabling the setting again. That would clarify whether it's triggering a recompute of the signature or just ignoring the error.

    In any case, the bug here is related to signature checking, yes, but it's not a problem with Zotero's signature — when it's not working, you can verify the app's signature with codesign and it passes, and of course, if it were a signature problem, compressing and uncompressing the app wouldn't fix it. My guess is that macOS recomputes the signature while Zotero is still in the middle of updating its files, there's a signature mismatch between the app and the plugin, and then it never checks again. I don't know why it happens during Zotero's update process specifically.
  • apf102
    Thanks so much!! This has been driving me insane. Did the process you suggested and then turned off the unsigned extensions option afterwards and it seems to stay there.
  • sjsjs
    Hallelujah! Thank you for posting this fix. I toggle the unsigned extensions feature on/off and it instantly fixes the problem without too much of a security problem, since it still works if you immediately turn the setting off again. With this fix I can continue to use Zotero until the developers figure out how to resolve this permanently.

    Sidenote with my circumstances for QA purposes: The Safari extension disappears from the Extensions pane in the Settings window, so I have to reinstall Zotero to get it back. It's very frustrating to have to continually do this, which interrupts my workflow. It's happening once a week and making the software a problem to use.

    My system details, in case anyone's keeping track:
    MacOS 15.6 (24G84)
    Zotero 7.0.24
    Safari Version 18.6 (20621.3.11.11.3)
  • emchateau
    edited August 17, 2025
    Thanks a lot, it works really well.

    Appart from this problem of the extension disappearing, I also frequently have issues with the recognition of content. I need to regularly to reload Safari to use the extension and be able to import a reference.

    MacOS 15.6 (24G84)
    Zotero 7.0.24 
    Safari Version 18.6 (20621.3.11.11.3)
  • martyrcalvin
    This worked for me. Thank you so much.
  • aserikss
    Thanks! Reappeared immediately. Update of Zotero did NOT do the trick
  • GBaby217
    This did not work for me. :( I then tried to compress, delete, and unzip method, and when I decompress it it tells me the file for zotero is damaged and should be moved to the trash. -_-
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    @GBaby217: Reinstall Zotero from the download page.
  • acmartin9
    Impossible to make this work, I followed all these instructions and deleted the DuckDuck privacy app as well.
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