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Installation

JabRef can be either installed (the preferred way) or be used as a portable application.

Installation instructions

To get the latest version, head to downloads.jabref.org, download the installer for your system (e.g., dmg files for MacOS and msi files for Windows), run them and follow the on-screen instructions.

Version

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Alternatively, on Windows, you can use the chocolatey package manager and execute choco install jabref to get the latest version. On Ubuntu, you can use snap install jabref to get the latest stable version from snapcraft.

Portable version

The portable version of JabRef is designed to be run from a USB stick (or similar) with no installation.

Download it from downloads.jabref.org. These are generic archive files (e.g., tar.gz files for Linux and MacOS, and zip files for Windows) which need to be extracted. Inside the archive files you will find the file needed to run JabRef:

for Windows JabRef.exe.
for Linux
- either runbin/JabRef
- or /lib/runtime/bin/JabRef.
for Mac, this is the file JabRef.app.

Be sure to activate "Load and Save preferences from/to jabref.xml on start-up (memory stick mode)" in Options → Preferences → General. Also, if the Linux version of JabRef portable is put into a folder named bin, it will not start. Other names are fine, like apps.

Development version

If you want to take advantage of the latest features, you can use pre-built binaries crafted from the latest development branch. To use the prebuilt binaries, visit builds.jabref.org/main and download the packaged binaries (e.g., dmg files for MacOS and exe files for Windows), run them and follow the instructions.

If you want to try the development version in parallel with the stable version, we recommend to download the portable version (e.g. JabRef-X.Y.portable_windows.zip, JabRef-X.Y.portable_macos.tar.gz, or JabRef-X.Y.portable_linux.tar.gz) from builds.jabref.org/main to ensure that both versions do not conflict.

Troubleshooting

Issues with high resolution displays

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.

Warning about preferences

In case you get the following error message

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]

How can I start or focus JabRef with hotkey ⊞+J (Win+J)?

Use AutoHotkey and JabRef.ahk provided at koppor's autohotkey scripts.

OpenOffice/LibreOffice integration

The connection from JabRef to Libre Office requires some office related jar-archives to be present. For this, you have to install the package libreoffice-java-common.

External program integration in Snap and Flatpak packages

The snap and flatpak packages cannot interact directly with external programs (i.e. programs not contained in the package sandbox). What this means is that for now there is no possible connection between JabRef and Libreoffice if either one is a snap/flatpak.

The integration with TeX editors is fine if JabRef is a deb/rpm, and the editor is a snap/deb/rpm (not a flatpak).

Depending on your use case and needed integrations it is advisable to choose the proper packages. Watch this page for new developments on the interactions with external programs.

Change default application to open files for JabRef snap

When JabRef is installed as a snap, it initially asks which application should be used to open PDFs (or other files). However, after selecting the same application three times, that application is set as default and there is no obvious way to select another application ("Preferences" -> "External File Types" does not help here, because the snap sandbox does not "see" any of the user's applications). This setting is stored in the XDG permission storage, and can be changed with a command like the following (see this forum thread for further information, and have a look at flatpack permissions to find the correct "Table": look for a line where the "App" is snap.jabref - in the below example, the table is the default desktop-used-apps): flatpak permission-set --data "{'always-ask':<false>}" desktop-used-apps application/pdf snap.jabref okularApplication_pdf 0 3 In this example, the default application to open PDF files is set to okularApplication_pdf, and the counter for when to stop asking how to open PDF files is set to 0/3. If you want JabRef to ask you which application to use every time, use 'always-ask':<true> in the data parameter.

Include JabRef in the start menu of Ubuntu

See http://askubuntu.com/a/721387/196423 for details.

Cannot start JabRef from the command line

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.

Everything looks too big or too small. How can I change it to to a more reasonable size?

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.

Non-latin characters are not showing up properly

You might need to install an additional font for JabRef to display characters correctly.

Submenus from the menu bar close immediately after left click is let go of if the menu bar was clicked in its top half

This issue seems to be related to this JavaFX bug. A temporary workaround is to click the menu bar in its lower half. To fix the issue permanently set the following system property: java -Djdk.gtk.version=2. This can be done globally by adding _JAVA_OPTIONS="-Djdk.gtk.version=2" to /etc/environment. It can also be set locally by editing JabRef.cfg in your installation folder (possibly located at /opt/JabRef/lib/app/JabRef.cfg) and add the line -Djdk.gtk.version=2 in the [JavaOptions] section.

Note: This could not work in JabRef 5.12. or later.

I cannot start JabRef 5.9 due to file beeing damaged

Execute xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/JabRef.app (This is a known problem related to Apple's notarization)

JabRef is slow/hangs sometimes

Some users with macOS Sierra have reported freezes when using JabRef. It seems this is a bug in the networking part of Java on macOS. Adding a host mapping for 127.0.0.1 seems to solve these issues.

Some characters are not displayed in the main table (math characters or some upper-cased letter)

This is one the one hand a font problem and second a lognstanding JavaFX bug. 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.

Building From Source

This method is mainly for package maintainers and users who would like to build the latest snapshots of JabRef directly from the source. If you want to setup JabRef for development, follow the instructions for setting up a workspace.

To build JabRef from source, you first need to have a working Java Development Kit (see above link for details) and Git installed on your system. After installing the two requirements, you open a terminal window (i.e., a command prompt) and type the following:

git clone --recurse-submodules --depth=10 https://github.com/JabRef/jabref
cd jabref
./gradlew assemble
./gradlew jlink

In a nutshell, you clone the latest snapshot of JabRef into jabref directory, change directory to jabref, initialize and update all the submodules (dependencies) of JabRef, assemble them to be built via JDK and finally build and link them together.

The output should be the build/image subdirectory that contains the JabRef binary with all of its Java dependencies. To start JabRef, you need to run bin/JabRef (in Linux and MacOS) or bin/JabRef.bat (in Windows) under build/image subdirectory.