Website refresh loop with firefox zotero extension

JohnRobinInston

Since the October 2025 update if the firefox zotero extension is installed on the browser any attempt to open any website results in a refresh loop. My laptop is a 2019 intel macbook pro 16 inch.

Functioning zotero extension which does not impact the browsing experience.

Latest.

Tahoe (26)

charcole

Possibly related? I've recently had infinite refresh loops trying to access some internal sites that use Okta auth. I got rated limited the first time 🙂 Restarting the browser seems to fix it consistently though.

jillifish

Having the same problem, and restarting isn't fixing it for me. Also working on Tahoe.

magicscribe

orion-zotero-firefox-endless-refresh.txt

64kB

I have the same issue on Tahoe and the previous OS version. I've tested the Firefox and Chrome extensions on Orion on various pages. The Chrome extension continues to not work (the extension is entirely nonresponsive). The Firefox extension has worked for a long time. Since roughly a week ago it causes endless refreshing on most pages. I have tried resetting and reinstalling Orion. The problem only occurs if the Firefox extension is enabled. After enabling the extension and refreshing the page, most web pages enter an endless refresh loop until the tab is killed. The extension is still partially working and saves a partial record to Zotero (saves: URL, Title, the date fields, abstract | does not save: snapshot of page) when clicked during the endless refreshing. I have attached the console log from an example page (https://stonetools.ghost.io/visicalc-apple2/)). From observing the console log while the page refreshes, each refresh comes with one new chunk of log (the blocks ending with lines that start with SyntaxError: Unexpected identifier). The extension works correctly in Firefox itself.

jillifish

I managed to get mine working by reinstalling from the "Orion for MacOS 26 Tahoe" link rather than the "Orion for Mac Installer" (unified version) on the download page. The vertical tabs also work better with this version -- before the vertical tabs kep covering up part of the webpage.

magicscribe

jillifish Did you change anything else? I tried reinstalling Orion this way (I typically use brew) and am still having endless refreshes if the Zotero extension is enable. As far as I can tell the version installed via brew is identical to the Tahoe version on the Orion download page.

Pasithea0

I also experienced this. Hope it can get fixed

jillifish

magicscribe Nope, I didn't change anything else, but I installed from the downloaded dmg, not brew. It doesn't look the same either. On the unified version the verticle tabs had the glass aesthetic but it's solid on this version.

magicscribe

jillifish Thanks! I previously tried replacing the brew version with the downloaded Tahoe-specific dmg. I'll try completing removing Orion and reinstalling. It's good to know that the developers removed the glass aesthetic of the sidebar. I dislike how it looks.

magicscribe

magicscribe Uninstalling via brew, restarting, and then installing the Tahoe-specific dmg did not fix the Zotero extension nor did it remove the glass aesthetic of the sidebar/vertical tabs. I am unsure why jillifish and I have had different experiences with this.

jillifish

magicscribe That's odd. Maybe I am mistaken in which version I downloaded? Here is the version listed when I go to "About Orion": Version 0.99.136-beta (WebKit 622.1.15.19.2)

magicscribe

jillifish Thanks! I'll see if I can downlaod that version. I'm on Version 0.99.137-beta (WebKit 623.1.8.0.0).

williamt

As per my comment here - https://orionfeedback.org/d/6523-refresh-loops-page-randomly-reloading/165 - I reverted to 0.99.136-beta when this first happened, unaware Zotero was the cause, and it solved the problem.

The refresh loop still happens with the newest beta (138). As per magicscribe's comment, the Chrome extension has never worked for me (nothing happens when you click the toolbar button).

I am trying to see if I can get away without the extension, and just use 'Add items by identifier' and 'Find full text' in Zotero instead. However this doesn't work for grey literature like news websites.

I've posted a thread on https://forums.zotero.org/discussions linking back here but it's pre-moderated so not visible yet.

defacto

I reported the same thing in October: https://orionfeedback.org/d/12031-the-zotero-extension-causes-the-page-to-refresh-infinitely

jncomas

Just adding that this problem still exists with the latest version of Orion (1.0.0 [139], WebKit 623.1.8.0.0).

magicscribe

jncomas Thanks for the update. I just tried it as well and got the same result.