automatic updates troubleshooting

erazlogo
My Zotero does not update automatically. I checked config and there are several update-related preferences that have a trash can next to them. Would it be safe to delete these? (See image) Thanks!
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u40/zufjhz29hk11zsr1r2im.png
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited 19 days ago
    But you see updates via Help → Check for Updates? What is the value of app.update.auto?
  • erazlogo
    Yes, I see Help->Check for Updates and that's how I now update - manually.

    app.update.auto = true

    My automatic updates stopped when I installed Actions & Tags plugin--I am sure it is to blame. Even though I uninstalled it, I still don't get notices about new versions. I was hoping that if I deleted these (extraneous?) preferences I would go back to normal.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited 19 days ago
    Can you provide a Report ID?

    How are you determining that you're not receiving updates? If this is the beta, there sometimes might not be beta updates for weeks at a time, and the app updates only on restart — there's no prompt. So if you don't restart Zotero frequently, it would be entirely normal to notice that you're on an outdated version and go to Help → Check for Updates and see an update offered (which would've already been downloaded in the background and would've been applied automatically on the next restart).
  • erazlogo
    Without troubleshooting mode: D790084800
    With troubleshooting mode: D244928745

    I only got on beta a few days ago when I saw the new advanced search--before then I was on a stable version. I haven't seen an update notice since July 2024 at least. I missed at least one update for several weeks--I had thought a feature was missing and then searched the forum and found out it was introduced in a version several weeks prior. So now I check for new versions manually.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    I haven't seen an update notice since July 2024 at least
    Well, again, there are no more update notices. Updates are only applied on app restart. So are you saying you've never seen Zotero auto-update on restart? You've never ended up on a version other than one you manually updated to?

    We can debug this, but it's not worth doing unless you're sure that you're actually missing updates. Not seeing any sort of prompt is not an indication of that.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited 19 days ago
    (Also, unrelated, but note that you're getting thousands of "Item data not loaded and field 'citationKey' not set" errors from the MarkDB-Connect plugin.)
  • erazlogo
    By "notice," I meant the message "A new version of Zotero was installed," with a link to new features, etc. I never get that message unless I run the manual Update.

    All I was asking was whether I can delete the above preferences--are they Zotero preferences or from a plugin? If the latter, I will delete. Thank you.

    I am aware of the MarkDB errors. The plugin runs fine once the startup is complete.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited 18 days ago
    That banner only appears for major-version upgrades, and we almost always make major-version upgrades available to manual updates before pushing them out as automatic updates. Based on your description, there’s just no reason to think there’s actually a problem with your auto-updates.

    Beta updates are always available as automatic updates, so when the next beta comes out — probably tomorrow or the next day — you should get it automatically on a restart within a day without checking for updates, and you’ll see the new version number in the about window. If you don’t, we can debug further. Until then, you should not touch internal settings, no.
  • erazlogo
    Ok, I will monitor Zotero in the next few days. I hope you are correct.
Sign In or Register to comment.