UNC path is missing sharename: \\ieee.csl

[reox]

JabRef version

6.0-alpha.3

Operating system

Windows

Details on version and operating system

Jabref 6.0.31342 Windows 11

Checked with the latest development build (copy version output from About dialog)

• I made a backup of my libraries before testing the latest development version.
• I have tested the latest development version and the problem persists

Steps to reproduce the behaviour

1. Start JabRef
2. JabRef crashes

Appendix

...

I updated to the latest master version and jabref started one time - however, after closing it and opening it again, I just get the error in the log and jabref does not start up. I'm not even sure where ieee.csl comes from. I looked on my PC and I can only find one in "C:\ProgramData\Docear4Word\Styles\ieee.csl" - but how does JabRef would use that file? Is there some temp folder I could delete? I already removed `%APPDATA%/../Local/org.jabref`.

Log File

2025-12-16 15:14:58 [main] org.jabref.logic.search.PostgreServer.<init>()
INFO: Postgres server started, connection port: 32707
2025-12-16 15:14:59 [main] org.jabref.logic.citationstyle.CSLStyleLoader.loadInternalStyles()
INFO: Loaded 2829 CSL styles
2025-12-16 15:14:59 [JavaFX-Launcher] sun.util.logging.internal.LoggingProviderImpl$JULWrapper.log()
WARN: Unsupported JavaFX configuration: classes were loaded from 'module javafx.graphics', isAutomatic: false, isOpen: true
2025-12-16 15:15:01 [JavaFX Application Thread] org.jabref.gui.theme.ThemeManager.updateThemeSettings()
INFO: Not updating theme because it hasn't changed
2025-12-16 15:15:01 [JavaFX Application Thread] org.jabref.gui.theme.ThemeManager.updateThemeSettings()
INFO: Theme set to Theme{type=DEFAULT, name=''} with base css StyleSheet{jrt:/org.jabref/org/jabref/gui/Base.css}
2025-12-16 15:15:02 [pool-2-thread-1] org.jabref.logic.ai.ingestion.model.UpdateEmbeddingModelTask.call()
INFO: Downloading embedding model...
2025-12-16 15:15:02 [JavaFX Application Thread] org.jabref.gui.JabRefGUI.start()
ERROR: Error during initialization: java.nio.file.InvalidPathException: UNC path is missing sharename: \\ieee.csl
	at java.base/sun.nio.fs.WindowsPathParser.parse(WindowsPathParser.java:132)
	at java.base/sun.nio.fs.WindowsPathParser.parse(WindowsPathParser.java:77)
	at java.base/sun.nio.fs.WindowsPath.parse(WindowsPath.java:92)
	at java.base/sun.nio.fs.WindowsFileSystem.getPath(WindowsFileSystem.java:203)
	at java.base/java.nio.file.Path.of(Path.java:148)
	at org.jabref.jablib/org.jabref.logic.citationstyle.CSLStyleUtils.createCitationStyleFromFile(CSLStyleUtils.java:64)
	at org.jabref/org.jabref.gui.preferences.JabRefGuiPreferences.lambda$getPreviewLayouts$0(JabRefGuiPreferences.java:904)
	at java.base/java.util.stream.ReferencePipeline$3$1.accept(ReferencePipeline.java:215)
	at java.base/java.util.ArrayList$ArrayListSpliterator.forEachRemaining(ArrayList.java:1716)
	at java.base/java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.copyInto(AbstractPipeline.java:570)
	at java.base/java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.wrapAndCopyInto(AbstractPipeline.java:560)
	at java.base/java.util.stream.ReduceOps$ReduceOp.evaluateSequential(ReduceOps.java:921)
	at java.base/java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.evaluate(AbstractPipeline.java:265)
	at java.base/java.util.stream.ReferencePipeline.collect(ReferencePipeline.java:727)
	at org.jabref/org.jabref.gui.preferences.JabRefGuiPreferences.getPreviewLayouts(JabRefGuiPreferences.java:921)
	at org.jabref/org.jabref.gui.preferences.JabRefGuiPreferences.getPreviewPreferences(JabRefGuiPreferences.java:862)
	at org.jabref/org.jabref.gui.preview.PreviewPanel.<init>(PreviewPanel.java:60)
	at org.jabref/org.jabref.gui.entryeditor.EntryEditor.<init>(EntryEditor.java:149)
	at org.jabref/org.jabref.gui.frame.JabRefFrame.<init>(JabRefFrame.java:175)
	at org.jabref/org.jabref.gui.JabRefGUI.start(JabRefGUI.java:119)
	at javafx.graphics@25.0.1/com.sun.javafx.application.LauncherImpl.lambda$launchApplication1$4(LauncherImpl.java:845)
	at javafx.graphics@25.0.1/com.sun.javafx.application.PlatformImpl.lambda$runAndWait$0(PlatformImpl.java:449)
	at javafx.graphics@25.0.1/com.sun.javafx.application.PlatformImpl.lambda$runLater$0(PlatformImpl.java:424)
	at javafx.graphics@25.0.1/com.sun.glass.ui.InvokeLaterDispatcher$Future.run(InvokeLaterDispatcher.java:95)
	at javafx.graphics@25.0.1/com.sun.glass.ui.win.WinApplication._runLoop(Native Method)
	at javafx.graphics@25.0.1/com.sun.glass.ui.win.WinApplication.lambda$runLoop$0(WinApplication.java:168)
	at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:1447)

[reox]

uhm... but something seems to be wrong with my system. I uninstalled the dev version and installed 5.15 - but I get the same error :(

I removed

• "AppData\Roaming\org.jabref.gui.JabRefGUI"
• "AppData\Local\org.jabref"

but it still does not start, always with the same error

Edit: Okay, -d all -n did help. I try to figure out where this error came from in the first place...

edit2: That's weird. I imported my old preferences, but now, I get the following message, just when I open the preferences and click save:

Can I reset just the keyboard stuff without affecting the other configuration? It also looks like all other changes to the configuration are not even stored.

[Siedlerchr]

@reox Yeah it seems something went wrong when migrating the preferences. Did you migrate from 5.15 or which upgrade path did you do?

[reox]

it could be a bit complicated... I had Jabref 6alpha1 installed on my old laptop. Then, exported the configuration and installed jabref on my new laptop via winget. I imported the configuration there and realized that winget gets the stable version... I manually installed jabref 6alpha3. The first start worked fine, but the second one did not...
I now removed everything, directly installed 6.0.31342 and imported the configuration from my old laptop - which seems to work and also to survive restarts.

[Siedlerchr]

Damn. I remember that recently someone else in the Gitter community chat had a similar problem, but we were unable to pinpoint the exact problem.
However, I think we should be more robust in that case here and catch any IO related exception or even better, try to strip the slashes.

jabref/jablib/src/main/java/org/jabref/logic/citationstyle/CSLStyleLoader.java

Lines 50 to 56 in 29bdb09

	public static CitationStyle getDefaultStyle() {
	return INTERNAL_STYLES.stream()
	.filter(style -> DEFAULT_STYLE.equals(style.getFilePath()))
	.findFirst()
	.orElseGet(() -> CSLStyleUtils.createCitationStyleFromFile(DEFAULT_STYLE)
	.orElse(new CitationStyle("", "Empty", "Empty", false, false, false, "", true)));
	}

[Shreyasdone]

Hey @reox , any specific version do i have to install to replicate this bug?

[reox]

I'm not even sure how it happened 😅 I had a configuration from probably 6alpha1 and imported it into stable. After upgrade to 6alpha3 I was able to start one time and on the second try I got this error.

[Shreyasdone]

But I searched for the file in the project and I actually found 2 files named ieee.csl did you not find those or am I not getting the actual issue?

[Shreyasdone]

So can you help me to replicate it 😅? > I'm not even sure how it happened 😅 I had a configuration from probably 6alpha1 and imported it into stable. After upgrade to 6alpha3 I was able to start one time and on the second try I got this error.