Zotero & Pale Moon - "An error has occurred…"

Deutsch | Español | Français | Italiano | Português | 日本語 | 한국어 | 简体中文

This post is on how to solve the problem when you get this message in Zotero using Pale Moon:

"An error has occurred. Please restart Pale Moon.
You can report this error by selecting "Report
Errors..." from the Actions (gear) menu."

This forces you to restart Pale Moon, and unfortunately the error will keep recurring randomly as you keep using Pale Moon, which can be very annoying and time-wasting. It must be to do with Zotero's integration with Pale Moon.

Further issues (if you don't restart Pale Moon immediately) - clicking on folders on the left won't display their items list. However, you can save items to the currently-selected Zotero folder - you just can't see the items list or view existing items, and you can't view your webpages tabs properly as the Zotero pane is in the way, blocking your view!

Also, if you get this error message, and you try to use your keyboard shortcut (usually Ctrl-shift-z) or the X icon to the right of the Zotero toolbar to close the Zotero pane, or you open a new Pale Moon window and try to start Zotero there, you'll just get yet another error message:

"There was an error starting Zotero".

Workaround to keep working in Pale Moon (if not Zotero)

First, here's a temporary workaround, just to let you see and save your current webpages or tabs to Zotero.

Hover the mouse over the top of the Zotero pane so it becomes a double headed arrow:

Then click and drag it down to hide the Zotero pane, so that only the Zotero toolbar is showing:

Obviously this gets most of Zotero out of the way of your webpages and tabs, so you can keep saving your then-open webpages to the currently selected folder.

If you need to change folders just drag Zotero back up, click on the name of the correct folder on the left and save the next webpage item, etc.

What's the longer-term solution?

Full solution to "An error has occurred. Please restart Pale Moon…"

The permanent fix I found after some troubleshooting is to disable automatic syncing in the Zotero settings.

1. In the Zotero toolbar, click the Zotero Settings icon (the cog), then Preferences:
   
   
2. Click the Sync tab, then click by "Sync automatically" to UNtick it, and click OK:
   
   
3. Finally, restart Pale Moon.

Since then, I've had no recurrence of the error message. I tested this solution by re-enabling automatic sync in Zotero and, sure enough, the problem came back.

The only downside is that in some ways this is just a workaround because you then have to remember to sync Zotero manually - click the Sync icon  at the right of the Zotero toolbar:

I now tend to do that every day just before I go and have lunch or dinner!

Zotero & Pale Moon - solve Word communication error

Deutsch | Español | Français | Italiano | Português | 日本語 | 한국어 | 简体中文

If you get "Word could not communicate with Zotero. Please ensure Firefox or Zotero Standalone is running and try again", when trying to use the Pale Moon browser (see Pale Moon review) with Zotero and Word in Windows, here's how to solve the problem.

Don't waste your time trying the usual fixes for that communication error, something more specific is needed for Pale Moon. The following worked for me in Windows 7 Pro and Word 2010.

1. Use the 32-bit version of Pale Moon

The 64-bit version has compatibility issues with Zotero, so even if you have a 64-bit computer, it's best to download install the 32-bit version of Pale Moon.

If you've already installed the 64-bit version of Pale Moon, just uninstall it in the usual way (eg for Windows 7) and then install the 32-bit version.

2. Install the Zotero add-on

Install the Zotero for Firefox add-on in Pale Moon in the usual way.

3. Do NOT try to install the Zotero plugin for Word from within Pale Moon

Where you previously had Firefox and Zotero working with Word integration, you should not try to install the Zotero Word plugin again from within Pale Moon. That will just make even more stuff stop working. Tried that, just made things worse for me, Word integration stopped working altogether even with just Firefox open!

(But if you did that already, you can fix it this way: close Word, close Pale Moon for luck, open Firefox and then reinstall the Word plugin for Firefox direct from the Zotero webpage, open Word, and check that you can add citations normally in Word again.)

4. Edit the Zotero Word plugin

After some searching and tinkering (here's where I got the clue about the Startup folder!), I worked out how to implement the required edits.

Do not try to edit Word's normal.dotm file in the Word templates - you can't edit the Zotero macros from there. Instead:

1. Open Word
2. Menu File > Open
3. In the File Open dialog box, click in the top address bar (or press Alt-d), then type or paste in the following:
   %appdata%\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP
   
   
4. Then hit the Enter or Return key, or click the right arrow button outlined in red in the pic above. The correct sub-folder will open.
5. Open the Zotero.dot file in that sub-folder. You'll just get a blank Word document.
6. Now in that Word document, press Alt-F11 (ie hold down the left Alt key and tap the F11 key). A new window will open, with the title "Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications - Zotero". Click on "Project (Zotero) on the left to highlight it:
   
7. Next go to menu Tools, choose Macros, and you'll see this pop up:
   
   
8. Click on "ZoteroInsertCitation" to highlight it, as shown above, then click the Edit button, and a sub-window should open up.
9. Now find the section that reads:
   ' Try various names for Firefox
       Dim appNames(5)
       appNames(1) = "Zotero"
       appNames(2) = "Firefox"
       appNames(3) = "Browser"
       appNames(4) = "Minefield"
       For i = 1 To 4
   (you can search for 'various names' to get there - menu Edit Find or Ctrl-f)
10. You need to make two changes
    1. insert the line:
           appNames(5) = "Pale Moon"
       after the appNames(4) line.
    2. change the 4 to read 5 in the "For" line
       
    so  it now looks like this:
    
11. Now go to the menu, File Save Zotero, and close that window, then close Zotero.dot.

5. Further tips on using Zotero with Pale Moon

Don't have both Firefox and Pale Moon open! Just have Pale Moon open to insert citations etc from your Pale Moon Zotero library.

Syncing. You can transfer your Zotero library to Pale Moon by syncing it from Firefox to the Zotero Sync Server, then (using the same username and password) syncing it again in Pale Moon - it may take some time each way. If you don't already have a free Zotero account to enable syncing, it's worth creating an account, if only for the peace of mind with backups!

PDFs. Yes you can view PDFs in Pale Moon and add PDFs to Zotero using Pale Moon. You just need PDF plug-ins for Pale Moon. (Added 17 June)

Credits: this forum and patch. I just added some shortcuts and screenshots!