PDF reader search freezes

ForkNTalk
I've been getting a bug when searching within an open PDF from the reader search box, not from Edit/Search or Edit/Advanced Search.

As I start typing the search word, the function begins searching the text before I finish typing, which can jam things up when the word I am using begins with a commonly used letter combination; for example; so, or at. The timer icon appears and if I click too soon I get a java script error pop-uip and usually have to restart Zotero.

Is there a setting that that only allows searching after I hit Enter?

Thank you

William
  • martynas_b
    1) How many pages does the PDF file have?
    2) Does it happen with other PDF files?
    3) Which Zotero version?
  • ForkNTalk
    Thank you for your response.

    1) It usually happens on PDFs of more than 100 pages, but not all the time.
    2) It has occurred on multiple files
    3) 7.0.27 (64 bit)

    I am reading scanned and PDFd documents from the early 19th century, that were printed. Some I have download with already recognised text and some I have OCR'd myself using the Tesseract engine. If there is a poor image quality I create image files for each page and then run them through Topaz Sharpen or Topaze DeNoise, recompile them into a PDF and then OCR them. sometimes because the original image was too poor the resultant OCR, even after enhancement, is also poor- but I'm not including those in the issue.

    I wouldn't sweat it, more than anything it's annoying. It would, however, be good if there was a check box to allow for searching only after ENTER has been hit- yes I know easier said than done.

    Next time it occurs I'll check the Error Console. I have noticed from yesterday there is an entry "19:14:20.287 Missing resource in locale en-AU: reader.ftl "

    William
  • martynas_b
    There isn't any setting for this, but normally you shouldn't have any problems with just a hundred pages.

    Could you send one of those slow PDF files to support@zotero.org, including a link to this thread?
  • ForkNTalk
    Hi,
    Will do, I can't remember which PDF it was because it happens so frequently. Next time it happens I'll upload the PDF to the link. I use Zotero for several hours each day, so I'm sure it will happen again soon. Yesterday, 20 November 2025, it occurred three times.
    When I look at the Error Console I notice that I have a lot of JSON Parse errors, for example:
    11:10:02.832 SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected character at line 1 column 10 of the JSON data 3

  • ForkNTalk
    edited November 21, 2025
    I just tried sending an email with a PDF that just cased the error, but the mail server said some very impolite things before rejecting the file as too large, 25 MB 517 pages of OCR'd text under the images. Attempting to compress it doesn't reduce the file size. I sometimes achieve success by printing the PDF to PDF, but Acrobat was as equally impolite.
  • martynas_b
    You can upload it to Google Drive, Dropbox, or a similar service and send us the link.
  • martynas_b
    Can you also provide a Debug ID for it happening?
  • ForkNTalk
    It take me a few days. This week I'm speding quality library time and won't be doing much reading in Zotero.
  • ForkNTalk
    Sorry it has taken so long, I just sent the debug ID which is D1136648432.

    I had searched one term in a 374 page pdf, and then started writing a new search term in the search box, without clearing, closing, and reopening the search box. The first search was using the word "infamous", which produced two results, and the second term I wanted to use was "unnatural" and this triggered the freeze after the first two letters were entered from the keyboard. It seemed to begin the search as I began typing. I am using a keyboard connected by Bluetooth, in case that's relevant; I have, however, no issue with the keyboard and it only ever has issues when the battery is running low.

    William
  • Matthew-hu
    I have just sent a debug report D1489897011, as this has been happening to me as well fairly often for medium size books on Win 10 8.0-beta.20+1233fd5a7 (64-bit). The search box seems to have trouble with input, as keystrokes past the first one entered are often not registered. It then also locks up and gives this message:
    A script on this page may be busy, or it may have stopped responding. You can stop the script now, or you can continue to see if the script will complete.

    Script: resource://zotero/reader/reader.js:51972

    If I press Continue, the search locates all of the instances of the one letter normally. In the case I just submitted, it found 5861 instances.
  • Matthew-hu
    Just submitted a report #621164172 and Debug D92622949 on this same issue as hit happened.
  • ForkNTalk
    Hi Mathew, I'm glad I'm not the only one with this issue. At one stage, I thought I was going a bit bonkers or that it was an issue with my PC. I'm guessing that since you and I are having the problem others must be as well. For me, more than anything it's annoying.

    William
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