Beta: Zotero Connector for Safari not showing up

dstillman · 2026-07-25T19:50:07+00:00

This discussion was created from comments split from: Available for beta testing: Improved Zotero Connector for Safari.

Calorion · 2026-07-24T22:59:41+00:00

What are the system requirements for this new extension? Zotero Connector is no longer showing up for me on Monterey.

dstillman · 2026-07-25T16:02:30+00:00

@Calorion: Same as before — Big Sur (macOS 11). Are you not seeing it in the Extensions pane in Safari, or are you just not seeing the icon in the toolbar? (If the latter, don't do anything — we'd want to debug that specifically. In that case, what Safari version?)

Calorion · 2026-07-25T19:48:13+00:00

It’s not showing up in Extensions at all, even after deleting, restarting, and reinstalling the beta.

dstillman · 2026-07-25T19:50:13+00:00

What Safari version?

Calorion · 2026-07-25T20:01:51+00:00

17.6.

dstillman · 2026-07-25T20:12:32+00:00

Can you open Terminal via Spotlight, paste in this block, press Return, and then either paste the output here or email it to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread?

pluginkit -mAvv | grep -i -A 4 zotero ; mdfind "kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier == 'org.zotero.zotero'" ;  ls /Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/PlugIns ; codesign --verify --deep --strict -vvvv /Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/PlugIns/ZoteroSafariExtension.appex

dstillman · 2026-07-26T20:15:42+00:00

/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/PlugIns/ZoteroSafariExtension.appex: resource fork, Finder information, or similar detritus not allowed
file with invalid attached data: /Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/PlugIns/ZoteroSafariExtension.appex/Contents/Resources/background/offscreenManager.js
file with invalid attached data: /Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/PlugIns/ZoteroSafariExtension.appex/Contents/Resources/offscreen/offscreenSandbox.js
file with invalid attached data: […]

You're saying the provided output is what you get after deleting Zotero in Applications and reinstalling it? How exactly are you installing it?

What's the output for this command?

xattr -l /Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/PlugIns/ZoteroSafariExtension.appex/Contents/Resources/manifest.json

Calorion · 2026-07-26T20:41:07+00:00

Just downloading it from https://www.zotero.org/support/beta_builds and dragging it into Applications.

`$ xattr -l /Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/PlugIns/ZoteroSafariExtension.appex/Contents/Resources/manifest.json
com.apple.FinderInfo:
com.apple.quarantine: 0183;6a63ecf9;Safari;8EF516F4-2C28-4B88-8B11-27D8CF727DDF`

dstillman · 2026-07-27T20:08:25+00:00

OK, try a new download.

Calorion · 2026-07-27T21:03:40+00:00

Downloaded 10.0-beta.17+91d7e73d2, overwrote previous copy, launched Zotero, restarted Mac, allowed unsigned extensions…Zotero still not appearing in list of extensions in Safari.

dstillman · 2026-07-27T23:49:40+00:00

Can you run the same commands as before?

Calorion · 2026-07-28T00:41:29+00:00

➜ ~ pluginkit -mAvv | grep -i -A 4 zotero ; mdfind "kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier == 'org.zotero.zotero'" ; ls /Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/PlugIns ; codesign --verify --deep --strict -vvvv /Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/PlugIns/ZoteroSafariExtension.appex
org.zotero.zotero-beta.SafariExtension(5.0.212)
Path = /Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/PlugIns/ZoteroSafariExtension.appex
UUID = A889E299-E826-4D0E-9EF9-A46AF9331D54
Timestamp = 2026-07-27 20:53:57 +0000
SDK = com.apple.Safari.web-extension
Parent Bundle = /Applications/Zotero.app
Display Name = Zotero Connector
Short Name = ZoteroSafariExtension
Parent Name = Zotero

com.apple.ContactsUI.ContactsViewService(1.0)
Path = /System/iOSSupport/System/Library/Frameworks/ContactsUI.framework/PlugIns/ContactsViewService.appex
UUID = 56A6EB92-16D8-4559-86D3-992F08AEFD8C
ZoteroSafariExtension.appex
/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/PlugIns/ZoteroSafariExtension.appex: valid on disk
/Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/PlugIns/ZoteroSafariExtension.appex: satisfies its Designated Requirement
➜ ~ xattr -l /Applications/Zotero.app/Contents/PlugIns/ZoteroSafariExtension.appex/Contents/Resources/manifest.json
com.apple.quarantine: 0183;6a67c2aa;Safari;840DC4FA-0CB9-44F2-86E6-59E50809F56D

dstillman · 2026-07-28T03:29:33+00:00

Is this an Intel Mac?

If you update to beta 18, does it work with "Allow Unsigned Extensions"?

Calorion · 2026-07-28T03:43:48+00:00

Yes and yes.

dstillman · 2026-07-28T13:45:16+00:00

OK, with beta 19 you should be able to use it with "Allow Unsigned Extensions" disabled. Let us know if that works.

It won't be the new improved Connector described in the original thread, though — those improvements were made by switching from a "Safari app extension" to a "Safari web extension", and Safari only supported web extensions via the Mac App Store on macOS 11 and 12. Beta 19 bundles both extensions, but we won't be updating the app extension going forward.

Note that Safari 17 is no longer receiving security updates from Apple, so it isn't really safe to use at this point. If you can't upgrade macOS (which would only be the case for Macs from before 2016 or 2017 at this point), I'd recommend switching to another browser (which means Firefox, basically — Chrome is dropping Monterey support literally today).