"Learn about the new features in Zotero 7" banner won't go away

gcbrito · 2025-10-27T14:52:02+00:00

Since updating to version 7 every time I startup Zotero, I get this banner. Clicking "Done" or "Remind me Later" doesn't seem to take any effect. This has been going on for several months. While I tried to ignore, this needs to go away eventually. Making this report in hopes of a fix.

Bug demonstrated here: https://imgur.com/a/Iqv5U4N

In the config editor, I tried flipping "extensions.zotero.firstRunGuidanceShown.z7Banner" from false to true, to no avail. Restarting in troubleshoot mode also doesn't to anything.

Zotero 7.0.27 (64-bit)
Debug ID: D1482225228 (before restarting)
Debug ID: D1980304804 (after clicking "Done" and restarting)

To help on debugging I clicked on the "Done" button on the video in the middle of these lines from the logs, but the click doesn't seem to generate any specific output.

[output removed — D.S.]

Help!

dstillman · 2025-10-27T14:56:24+00:00

I tried flipping "extensions.zotero.firstRunGuidanceShown.z7Banner" from false to true, to no avail

Does it stay as true after a restart?

gcbrito · 2025-10-27T15:10:00+00:00

No, it reverts to false.

dstillman · 2025-10-27T15:11:16+00:00

But extensions.zotero.uiDensity is persisted?

gcbrito · 2025-10-27T15:14:52+00:00

Yes, choosing either Confortable or Compact on the banner persist restarts normally.

dstillman · 2025-10-27T15:45:11+00:00

What's the value of extensions.zotero.prefVersion?

gcbrito · 2025-10-27T16:15:41+00:00

13

dstillman · 2025-10-27T16:17:22+00:00

Can you provide a Debug ID for Zotero startup, using the "Restart with Logging Enabled…" option?

gcbrito · 2025-10-27T16:19:50+00:00

D2037874383

dstillman · 2025-10-27T18:16:24+00:00

If you set extensions.zotero.firstRunGuidanceShown.z7Banner to true, close Zotero, go to your Zotero profile folder, and open prefs.js in a text editor (e.g., Notepad), what are the values for extensions.zotero.firstRunGuidanceShown.z7Banner and extensions.zotero.prefVersion?

gcbrito · 2025-10-27T19:01:26+00:00

With zotero open, before clicking "Done" on the banner there is this line:
user_pref("extensions.zotero.firstRunGuidanceShown.z7Banner", false);

When I click "Done", the line is deleted. Also, when I change extensions.zotero.firstRunGuidanceShown.z7Banner to 'true' on the config editor (your question).

Next time I start Zotero, the line is recreated with a value of 'false' again. If I edit prefs.js directly with zotero closed, it reverts the line from 'true' to 'false' on startup (deletes and recreate the line with value 'false').

dstillman · 2025-10-27T19:03:37+00:00

And prefVersion?

gcbrito · 2025-10-27T19:05:51+00:00

It never changes from '13'

dstillman · 2025-10-27T19:08:00+00:00

Just to be clear, you're checking when Zotero is closed and you see the prefVersion line at 13 in prefs.js?

gcbrito · 2025-10-27T19:09:55+00:00

Exactly

gcbrito · 2025-10-27T19:32:53+00:00

I found out what the problem was. There was this 'user.js' file in the same folder and it had a line extensions.zotero.prefVersion of '6'.
I have no idea where this file came from, but my installation is many years old and it might have been left there a long time ago.
Removing the file made the banner go away!
Thanks for the help dstillman, and sorry this was rather confusing.