Zotero starts very slowly when downloading files on launch

pphuwasanti · 2026-01-25T13:08:39+00:00

Report ID 2126194897

I’m having an issue where Zotero starts up very slowly, especially when it begins downloading the stored files. Zotero's interface becomes white for almost a minute, and sometimes the platform appears to freeze until the downloads finish.

This happens at almost every startup.

What I’ve tried so far:

1. Restarting Zotero and my computer

2. Pausing sync and restarting Zotero

3. Checking database integrity

Questions:

1. Is this expected behaviour for large libraries?

2. Are there recommended settings to improve startup speed?

3. Would reinstalling Zotero help, or is there a better troubleshooting step?

pphuwasanti · 2026-01-25T13:24:16+00:00

I've now downgraded to Zotero 7, and it starts in less than 5 seconds. My issue appears to depend on the version I installed and, perhaps, also on the number of annotations and files.

adamsmith · 2026-01-25T15:15:02+00:00

Depending on your database might be this? https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/129190/zotero-8-isnt-loading-database#latest

See if the current beta speeds things up for you. See also in the thread the debug info Zotero devs would need to further troubleshoot.

pphuwasanti · 2026-01-25T15:24:42+00:00

I've run the beta version several times and am fairly sure it doesn't speed up the process on my PC.

For your further investigation, I've submitted my debug output: D7464038.

dstillman · 2026-01-25T18:16:35+00:00

This is the same issue as that thread, so you should follow up there. The previous beta would've help a bit, but the latest beta should fix it. Let us know in that thread.