Whenever I highlight text in a PDF stored in Zotero, and then choose “Add Comment” on that highlight, Zotero freezes. After a short time, I get a system pop-up saying “Zotero is not responding”, and the program closes/crashes.
This happens consistently and makes it impossible to annotate PDFs properly.
Report ID: 449734741

I have no idea if this is the right one, but this is de Debug ID: D898011301
This happens to all my PDFs.

I can’t manage to get that debug ID, because my program completely freezes and then crashes. And then it doesn’t keep the output anymore, So I can't get the debug ID. I’m honestly done with it at this point.

(And no, no one else has reported anything like this, so if you'd like this fixed, you'll need to work with us to investigate the problem.)

I mean, that's just not what I asked for. I asked for debug output for Zotero startup, by going to Help → Debug Output Logging and choosing "Restart with Logging Enabled…". That's just not what you're providing.

Okay so when I do that, what should I do next exactly? Please take me through all the steps, because I really am trying my best, but I am not the best in software/programming etc.
I'm really doing my best to figure this out and provide the information you need. I’m trying to help get the program working properly, not make things difficult. Could you please stay polite as well?

Okay — I’ll explain as precisely as I can what I’m not understanding, so you can see where I’m going wrong.

When I follow the exact steps:

I enable troubleshooting mode (Help → Debug Output Logging → Restart with Logging Enabled…)

Zotero restarts

I create a highlight and add a comment

Before Zotero freezes/crashes, I click: Help → Submit Debug Output Logging → ‘Submit Output’

After I click ‘Submit Output’, I get a code that I can copy to my clipboard: D2086178140

Is this the Debug ID you’re asking for? If not, what exactly is missing or different from what you need?

I’m genuinely trying to provide the correct information so you can diagnose the issue

Okay, good to hear that it’s working fine now. That’s correct: if I’m quick, I can sometimes add a comment, but how long it takes varies. Sometimes it freezes after just one sentence, sometimes only after three. In the end, it always freezes if I keep typing long enough.
If I stop after one sentence and it hasn’t frozen yet, and then continue working elsewhere in the document, it doesn’t suddenly freeze afterwards. It really only freezes while I’m typing in the comment.

I hope this is what you mean with the screenshot. I made it when the programme did not react any more, and just before i shut it down:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u18712802/99ryo28orlp68fus1k07.png

Okay, would you say this is more likely related to my Windows system or my computer’s performance, rather than the latest Zotero update?

Same for me on mac os tahoe 26.5 and zotero 9.0.4. Occasionally - about once every 50 comments - it completely freezes.

edit: still happens in zotero 9.0.6.
If I run
/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/MacOS/zotero -ZoteroDebugText
from the terminal. I get the usual stuff like:

```
zotero(4)(+0000001): Item 4164 has not changed
zotero(3)(+0007551): Writing reader state to /Users/mrzi/Seafile/Meine_Bibliothek/PhD/zotero_data/storage/6XK42YKE/.zotero-reader-state
zotero(3)(+0009522): Starting full-text content processor
zotero(4)(+0000000): Registering notifier observer 'fulltext_tL' for [sync]
zotero(3)(+0015177): Checking for unprocessed full-text content
zotero(4)(+0000001): SELECT itemID FROM fulltextItems WHERE synced=2
zotero(3)(+0000001): No unprocessed full-text content found
zotero(3)(+0000000): Unregistering full-text content processor idle observer
zotero(3)(+0000000): Stopping full-text content processor
zotero(3)(+0021222): Getting contents of /Users/mrzi/Library/Application Support/Zotero/Profiles/rr187p5f.default/treePrefs.json
zotero(3)(+0000002): Writing column prefs of length 7041 to file /Users/mrzi/Library/Application Support/Zotero/Profiles/rr187p5f.default/treePrefs.json

JavaScript error: , line 0: Error: Failed to load resource://gre/modules/PlacesDBUtils.sys.mjs
zotero(3)(+0278855): Last backup of database 'zotero' was less than 1440 minutes ago -- skipping backup

zotero(4)(+0004953): SELECT itemID FROM items JOIN deletedItems USING (itemID) WHERE libraryID=? AND dateDeleted <= DATE('NOW', '-30 DAYS') [1]
```

Then I click on a highlight to update the comment associated to the highlight, zotero freezes and does not recover. No further output is printed to the terminal.

Therefore I am also not able to click on report error via the UI to get a Report or Debug ID.

After restart, I clicked view Debug output and it showed me:

```
1784471888484 addons.xpi WARN Force scan SCOPE_APPLICATION (app-builtin-addons location missing from XPIStates)

[JavaScript Error: "uncaught exception: undefined"]

[JavaScript Error: "TypeError: this.ownerGlobal.gBrowser.getTabForBrowser is not a function" {file: "chrome://global/content/elements/browser-custom-element.mjs" line: 932}]
getTabBrowser@chrome://global/content/elements/browser-custom-element.mjs:932:54
onPageHide@chrome://global/content/elements/browser-custom-element.mjs:958:27


appName => Zotero, version => 9.0.6 (ARM64), os => macOS 26.5, locale => en-US, extensions => Better BibTeX for Zotero (9.0.46, extension)

(3)(+0030292): Starting full-text content processor
(4)(+0000000): Registering notifier observer 'fulltext_Q2' for [sync]
(3)(+0031383): Getting contents of /Users/mrzi/Library/Application Support/Zotero/Profiles/rr187p5f.default/treePrefs.json
(3)(+0000003): Writing column prefs of length 7041 to file /Users/mrzi/Library/Application Support/Zotero/Profiles/rr187p5f.default/treePrefs.json
```

I have submitted this with Debug ID D399871595