A: Currently this is necessary, since our code signing infrastructure is not operational. Ctrl-click
to open the downloaded .dmg
file in Finder to install JabRef.
A: On Mac OS X Lion, it is possible to resolve it by temporarily changing the Gate Keeper security settings under “Security&Privacy” in the system preferences to “Anywhere”. After that you can open the JabRef app. When you have opened it once, you can change the security settings back and you'll still be able to open the app.
A: We were not able to generate a working version of JabRef 2.11 for Mac OS X. Please use the jar of version 2.11, or look at the newer 3.X versions (which fully supports Mac OS X again).
A: Due to the change of the installer for 3.x it is required to perform a clean install of any JabRef 3.x version. You are required to remove any previously installed JabRef 2.x application from the "Applications" folder. Then you can install the latest JabRef 3.x version with the installer. As soon you are running on any JabRef 3.x version, you can use the installer to upgrade JabRef.
A: To override that, Ctrl + Click instead, and choose "open", which gives the same warning but the possibility to override it. then you can install.
A: The problem occurs because you do not have Java 8 installed, and the automatic download and installation is somehow failing... It can be downloaded here manually: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-downloads-2133151.html.
A: This is a problem some users experience in JabRef 4.0 or later on MacOS Sierra. It seems this is a bug in the networking part of Java on MacOS. You can try to add localhost explicitly to /etc/hosts
as described here.
A: This might be a problem related to the font you are using. You can download some other font that supports mathematical alphanumeric symbols, for example, FreeSerif or Cambria Math. A list of fonts supporting Math Unicode blocks is available at http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/block/mathematical_alphanumeric_symbols/fontsupport.htm.
Due to the large number of issues with OS X, here is a step by step tutorial how to ensure that you can build and run JabRef under OS X. Since we are at the moment not able to provide a correctly signed and working dmg
that includes the Java Runtime Environment, this guide how you can ensure your Java environment under OS X is correctly set up.
With a correct Java set up, you can either simply run the JabRef.jar
files we provide or you can build your own JabRef from source. For running the JabRef jar
, you only need a Java Runtime Environment (JRE), but since the Java Development Environment (JDK) will contain the correct JRE, we will only show you how to install the JDK. With the JDK, that contains the java compiler javac
, you can build JabRef from sources.
We advise using Oracle Java 1.8.0_161 for JabRef 4.x on OS X. It is available at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-downloads-2133151.html.
A quick Java check can be done in the terminal. Open Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal.app and type java -version
. Your output should look like this
If you see an error or if you have a different version, you need to install the correct one. This can be done by navigating to the Oracle Download page and scrolling down to the section where you see Java SE 8u161/ 8u162. Click on the button that is labelled "JDK Download". On the next page, make sure you have clicked on the checkbox Accept License Agreement and download the macOS dmg file. After downloading, open it and after it was verified double click again on the installer.
After the installation is finished, you should see the correct version in the Terminal. You probably have to close and re-open the Terminal to apply the changes. If you still see the wrong version, most likely a newer version than 1.8.0_161
, then your system uses the newer version per default, although the correct 1.8.0_161
version is installed.
Assuming you have a working Java installation, you can run JabRef directly from command line. Head over to the JabRef development builds download and download JabRef--master--latest.jar
. The downloads are usually stored in your home directory under Downloads
. In the terminal, you have to change directoy to this folder by typing
The ~
stands for your home directory. Once done, you can use
The advantage of running it from a terminal is that you see log-messages directly in the terminal window. Additionally, you can directly specify which JRE you want to use. With several different Java versions, you need to ensure you are using the correct one. When running JabRef from the terminal, you can always specify the full path of the java
you want to use like it was shown above. The JDK's you have installed should be located under the path
Therefore, on my machine, I can use a specific Java version by running the command
Easier than looking up the full path of the JDK is using the command /usr/libexec/java_home
which helps you to show installed Java versions and run a command on a particular one. You can see all your installed JDK's and the one that is currently selected as default by providing the option -V
like this
You can use this tool to directly start JabRef with the desired version by using
JabRef.jar
by clicking on JabRef.jar
Most users might want to start JabRef by placing the JabRef.jar
on the desktop and double-clicking it. This is only possible if the system-wide Java version is correct.
To check which version of Java your system uses, you can open the System Preferences and click the Java
button at the bottom. If you don't see the Java
button, you can jump directly to "Installing correct Java version".
When you pressed the Java button, a new window will pop up that has several tabs. Select the tab with the name Java
and click the button View
. This will open a window that shows your current Java version
If you see a different version than 1.8.0_161
then JabRef might crash when you simply double-click it.
You have to change the "compatibility settings" for JabRef to "Disable scaling for high DPI settings". Further information is available at https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/apps-and-windows-store/app-display-issues?os=windows-10
Further reading: https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/415 and http://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-3-6-on-hires-laptop-screen-messed-up/277.
You can directly use the references in Word's internal reference manager. Short explanation: Export your bibliography in XML format and replace the Sources.xml in %APPDATA%\Roaming\Microsoft\Bibliography
. Long explanation: see Using JabRef references in Word document. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PpLZTol9_o vor a video explaning the usage.
Another option is to use Bibtex4Word. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j3g4wfdM00 for a video explaining the usage.
The last option is to use Docear4Word, which is planned to be ported to JabRef (see JabRef4Word).
Use AutoHotkey and JabRef.ahk provided at koppor's autohotkey scripts.
WARNING: Could not open/create prefs root node Software\JavaSoft\Prefs at root 0x80000002. Windows RegCreateKeyEx(...) returned error code 5.
Start regedit and create the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\JavaSoft\Prefs
. [source]
Yes, there is. See http://askubuntu.com/a/721387/196423 for details.
JabRef 5.x requires Java 13 (It is included in the native builds)
JabRef requires Java 8
Please follow the steps provided on our installation page. JabRef 4.x does not run under Java 9 or newer. See https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/2594
You might see the error message Error: Could not find or load main class org.jabref.JabRefMain
. This means, you do not have JavaFX support activated in your Java runtime environment. This typically happens if you use OpenJDK, where one needs to setup OpenJFX separately.
You have several Java Virtual Machines installed, and under the command line the wrong one is chosen. Have a look at the previous question that tells you how to change the virtual machine used.
For Ubuntu you may also have a look at the Ubuntu page on Java.
As far as we know, JabRef is not yet running on these free JVMs, due of our dependencies. However, JabRef is reported to run nicely on the IcedTea runtime, which is based on the OpenJDK built with GNU Classpath to fill in missing classes. Some issues have been encountered with the look and feel (see issues #393 and #2003). Please let us know if newer versions give different results. If you have an idea or the expertise to make JabRef work under Classpath, let us know.
In the background, JabRef uses JavaFX. Applications using JavaFX can be scaled via java -Dglass.gtk.uiScale=1.5 -jar <application>.jar
. If you have installed JabRef via a package manager, you probably don't have a .jar
file but a binary file. In this case, you need to find your JabRef.cfg
in your installation folder (possibly located at /opt/JabRef/lib/app/JabRef.cfg
) and add in the section [JavaOptions]
the line -Dglass.gtk.uiScale=1.5
. Then, restart JabRef. Try finding a value that is suitable for you. On high resolution displays, values around 1.5
seem to be reasonable.