Update from 2.0.9 to 2.1.1: "There was an error starting Zotero"

After I had updated from 2.0.9 to 2.1.1 opening Zotero did not succeed: I could see the collections but instead of articles there was an error message and I also got pop-up prompt saying that "There was an error starting Zotero".

I got Zotero working after trying many different things: the solution was to uninstall Zotero and configure it to use new data directory: then I copied the folders from my old Zotero data directory into the new one along with the file zotero.sqlite.
There were few files in the old data directory that seemed to cause the problem - after excluding these files Zotero worked again:

pdfinfo-Win32.exe
pdfinfo-Win32.exe.version
pdftotext-Win32.exe
pdftotext-Win32.exe.version
zotero.sqlite.bak
zotero.sqlite-journal


By the way: the standalone alpha is also giving the prompt "There was an error starting Zotero" and it will not start at all. Any ideas how to fix this?


Broser and OS:
Firefox 3.6.15
Windows Vista Premium
  • edited March 22, 2011
    It was likely zotero.sqlite-journal. Restarting your computer might have fixed it as well—on Windows, it's possible for Firefox to not properly close even once all windows have disappeared.
  • Today I upgraded firefox to 4.

    For one computer with windows xp, on which I have customized lib directory. I got the same problem as eemil said. I restarted system, no effect. Delete zotero.sqlite-journal, still no effect.

    For another computer with windows 7, on which I just use the default lib directory. Zotero was fine, but word plugin did not work, keeping saying there was a problem and won't install correctly.

    Since I use zotero for writing papers, hope the issues could be fixed quickly.

    Thanks.
    Xiang
  • For the first issue: on zotero preference->advance->database maintenance, click reset translator, reset styles. zotero works now. Though some "un-defualt" styles are lost.

    For the second issue, still no idea what's the problem.

    Xiang
  • rwrwuwx: start a new thread, describing your unsolved issue in more detail:
    http://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_bugs
  • never mind - I saw you already did that:
    http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/16985/upgrade-to-firefox-4-word-plugin-cant-install/#Item_0
  • Yeah. The second issue was just also resolved. Turn off a safety software called Kingsoft internetsecurity, then word plugin is installed correctly. The first issue may also be related to this, but I won't go over again:).

    thanks
    Xiang
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