Table of Contents

Come to this section when you feel lost, confused or annoyed. You'll find common issues and the easiest ways to solve them. We want to kill your frustration. 

• How to take a screenshot to prove you aren't going crazy
• How clearing your cookies and cache will save your sanity
• How to keep pop-up blockers from withholding your articles
• How to make sure your browser doesn't ruin your JSTOR experience
• How to fix a corrupted PDF

How to take a screenshot to prove you’re not going nuts

Even though we are super amazing at pretty much all things in life, we cannot (yet) see exactly what’s on your computer screen when you write in to us. We try our best to figure out what’s going on based on your description and other information we know about the site, but sometimes, it’s best if we can just see what you’re seeing.

Down below are instructions for taking a screenshot on a PC and Mac, respectively.

PC

• Hold down Alt and press the Print Screen (may look like PrtScn SysRq) at the same time. This will copy everything that’s in your current active window.

• Go to whatever program you’d like to use to paste the image you have. You can paste the image by holding down Ctrl and pressing V. 

• Most email clients allow you to paste an image directly into the body of the message, but you can also enter the image into a Microsoft Word (or other word processing program) document. The most popular way to go about it is to open Microsoft Paint and pressing Ctrl + V after you open the program. This way, you can edit the image if you’d like, calling out specific important portions of the image, and you can save the image as a standalone file. The image for Microsoft Paint looks like this in case you’re curious (and you should be because it’s adorable):

Mac

• Hold down Command and Shift at the same time, and then press 4. Let go of these three, press the space bar, and then click on the window you’d like to capture. A file will automatically save to your desktop.

• If you’d rather just copy the image instead of creating a file (this is useful if you’d like to paste it into a document or email message), do all the commands above while holding down the Control button. 

• To paste the image into a document or message, click where you want the image to appear and hold Command while pressing V.

Shoutout to Azriena Azman for all the PC keyboard layout images (which we edited), and to EricRobson214 for the Mac keyboard layout images (which we also edited).

How clearing your cookies and cache might save your life or at least your sanity

When to clear your cookie and cache: Pretty much any time you experience the JSTOR website
(or any other site, for that matter) acting wonky.

Clearing your cookies and cache is like the aspirin of the Internet. Whether you’re having login trouble, issues with your MyJSTOR Shelf, or you’re sure our site is producing “interesting” errors, a quick emptying of the cookies and cache has a good chance to clear things up. If you do clear your cache and cookies but are still experiencing a pesky problem, please contact us, and we’ll get to the bottom of it.

The first thing you’ll need to do to clear your cookies and cache is determine what browser you’re using. We’ll provide guides below for both PC and Mac users for the most recent versions of the following browsers:

PCs: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer

Macs: Chrome, Firefox, Safari

CHROME

1. Go to the upper right corner of your browser and click on the image to the right of your address bar. It has three short horizontal lines on it, and when you click on it, a menu will pop up.

2. Click “History” from the options listed.

3. Click “Clear browsing data…” located just underneath “History” at the top of the page.

4. Make sure that “Cookies and other site and plug-in data” and “Cached images and files” (the third and fourth options) are checked off. You can choose whatever time period you want, but we usually suggest to just choose “the beginning of time” – you can’t really ask for anything more definitive than that! Then click “Clear browsing data.”

5. There may be a few moments while Chrome works to delete this data. If you haven’t cleared your cache and cookies in a long time (or never have at all!) it will take a bit longer. You will see the same screen while it works, but the options will be grayed out and there will be a spinning blue half circle just to the left of the “Clear browsing data” button you just clicked. Here’s an image of what it looks like mid-spin:

6. When you’re all done, this mini window will go away, and you’ll be left looking at your Settings page. Voila! You did it!

FIREFOX

1. Go to the upper right corner of your browser and click on the image to the right of your address bar. It has three short horizontal lines on it, and when you click on it, a menu will pop up.

2. Click “History” from the options listed.

3. Click “Clear Recent History…” which is the second option down.

4. A new window will pop up that is called “Clear All History.” Choose “Everything” as the time range to clear, and make sure that “Cookies” and “Cache,” the third and fourth options down, are checked off. Click “Clear Now” once you’ve done this.

5. After a few moments, the “Clear All History” window will disappear. This means you’re done!
 

Mac: SAFARI

1. From the Safari Menu, select Reset Safari
2. Uncheck any or all boxes, but leave Clear History selected
3. Click Reset

PC: Internet Explorer

 1. Go to the upper right corner of your browser and click on the image to the right of your address bar that looks like a gear. When you click on it, a menu will pop up. Click on “Safety,” and then “Delete browsing history…”

2. A window will pop up. Make sure the “Preserve Favorites website data” option is unchecked and then make sure the “Temporary Internet files and website files,” “Cookies and website data,” and “History” options are checked. Then click “Delete.”

3. It will take a few moments, especially if you haven’t cleared your cookies and cache in a long time, but you will see a message along the bottom of the screen once it has been cleared that says, “Internet Explorer has finished deleting the selected browsing history.” Then you’re good to go!

How to keep pop-up blockers away from your sweet, sweet JSTOR articles

Have you ever found the perfect article on JSTOR only to click "Download PDF" and watch helplessly as nothing happens? We imagine it left you feeling a little irritable.

We’re sorry you had to deal with that. (And hope you didn’t break your computer.) We're aware of how distressing it is to finally find that perfect article only to have it snatched away. But don’t worry! You’re not alone with this sneaky problem. 

Web browsers generally have a default setting that blocks all pop-ups. While this is mostly good for the health of your computer (and your personal sanity) pop-up blockers can’t differentiate between ads for the latest internet scam and pop up PDFs of scholarly articles. This is something that users have to manually change within their browser settings. Sound scary? We promise that it’s not. 

Each browser has a slightly different way of changing these settings, so we’re going to walk you through the most common. Furthermore, some browsers act differently on Macs and PCs, but we’ll cover the differences when we get to those.

Internet Explorer (IE)

IE has their pop-up blocker on by default. You can choose to permanently disable the blocker, or temporarily allow a download for the article you’re trying to access RIGHT NOW. As an important aside, these instructions work on both Macs and PCs.

Here’s how to accomplish the first option (permanently disabling the pop-up blocker in IE):

• Open Internet Explorer.
• Select "Tools" from the main menu in the upper right corner. It's the icon that looks like a cog.

• Select "Internet Options" from the Tools menu.
• Select the “Privacy” tab, and then uncheck “turn on pop-up blocker” to turn it off.

Your pop-up blocker is now disabled. To turn it back on, follow the steps above and select "turn on Pop-up Blocker.” We don’t recommend this option for long-term, but it may be useful when you are using JSTOR extensively.

If your Pop-up Blocker is enabled and a pop-up is blocked, you'll see a small information bar beneath the address bar. Select the information bar so that you can choose one of the three options. Clicking this bar will allow you to temporarily allow pop-ups, add the site to the exceptions list, or adjust your blocking settings. These options should be listed as: 

• Temporarily allow pop-ups (from this site only).
• Always allow pop-ups from this site.
• Adjust the pop-up blocker settings.

Adding JSTOR to your exceptions list will allow pop-ups from JSTOR at all times. If you return to "Internet Options" choose the "Settings" button to the right of the Pop-up Blocker box. 

All you need to do is put the website address in the bar at the top of the "Pop-up Blocker Settings" page and press the "Add" button to the right hand side. And BOOM you never need worry about missing your precious PDFs. 

 

Google Chrome:

Like Internet Explorer, Chrome will automatically have its pop-blocker enabled. Just like IE, these instructions will work for Macs and PCs. To make exceptions or to permanently disable the pop-blocker, follow these instructions, but first please make sure you have the most up-to-date version of Chrome:

If you want to permanently disable pop-up blocking in Chrome:

• Open Google Chrome.
• Select "Settings" from the Chrome menu.

• Select the "Show advanced settings..." link at the bottom of that page.

• Select "Content settings..." from the Privacy section.

• Select "Allow all sites..." radio button from the "Pop-ups" section.
• Again, if this doesn't work, please make sure you have the most up-to-date version of Chrome.

To manually allow pop-ups as you encounter them, follow these instructions:

• At the end of the address bar, click the pop-up blocker icon (a little square with a red x in the lower right hand corner):

• Click the link for the pop-up window you'd like to see.
• To always see pop-ups for the site, select "Always show pop-ups from http://www.jstor.org."
• The site will be added to the exceptions list, which you can manage in the Content Settings dialog.

Firefox

For Firefox, there are slightly different instructions depending on whether you are using a Mac or a PC. 

For PCs

• Click the menu button and choose "Options".

• Select the Content panel.

• In the Content Panel: Block pop-up windows: Uncheck this to disable the pop-up blocker altogether.
• Exceptions: This is a list of sites that you want to allow to display pop-ups. Once you add the URL of the website you want, you'll have the following choices.  Allow: Click this button to add a website to the exceptions list. Remove Site: Click this button to remove a website from the exceptions list. Remove All Sites: Click this button to remove all of the websites in the exceptions list. 

For Macs

• Select “Preferences” in lieu of "Options" in the menu button.

• Select “Content.”

• In the box next to “Block Pop-up windows,” uncheck the box to complete the appropriate setting.
• Exceptions: This is a list of sites that you want to allow to display pop-ups. Once you add the URL of the website you want, you'll have the following choices.  Allow: Click this button to add a website to the exceptions list. Remove Site: Click this button to remove a website from the exceptions list. Remove All Sites: Click this button to remove all of the websites in the exceptions list. 

Safari:

These instructions are for Apple devices as they are (generally speaking) the heaviest users of Safari. 

For computers of the Mac persuasion: 

• Once you have Safari open, click on a window and go to the "Safari" menu in the upper left hand portion of your screen. Choose "Preferences."

• You'll be presented with a menu of options. Go to the "Security" tab and from there, choose the section marked "Web content". Uncheck the "Block pop-up windows" option. 

• When you're finished, the "Block pop-up windows" should be the only unchecked option. 

For iPad and iPhone:

• Find the "Settings" icon on your screen.

• Once in your settings, find the "Safari" section in the list.

• In the list of Safari settings find the button that says "Block Pop-ups." The button next to it should be partially green. Slide it to the left. The button will then be completely white. This will allow you to get your PDF.

And that, my friends, is how you turn off your pop-up blocker. 

How your browser can throw a wrench in your JSTOR

Every so often, you come to JSTOR and something is...off. Maybe it's slow, you get a weird error or you can't get to an article that's just sitting RIGHT THERE. Before you throw your computer away, consider: the fault may be your browser. Lucky for you, we can guide you to a better one or help your existing browser be its best self. 

So WHICH browser should you be using? The most popular, according to StatCounter, are Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.

What's the difference? Chrome is fast. Internet Explorer performs unevenly and is fading out of existence (because Microsoft isn't making new versions of it ever). Firefox is great for privacy and accessibility. Safari is perfectly fine as long as you're using it on a mac. The images below are what they look like on your desktop.

If you are wondering which browser you're using RIGHT NOW, here's a handy website that tells you: http://www.whatbrowser.org/

Although we support all the browsers mentioned above, JSTOR works best with Safari, Firefox and Chrome. As mentioned above, Microsoft won't be creating any new versions of Internet Explorer so the quality of your experience will only get worse. 

To keep your JSTOR experience from getting weird, make sure that your browser is updated. You can always find out what version you should be using by visiting the information pages for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and IE. Generally, browsers update automatically when connected to the internet but you can manually update too.

How to force an update on your browser:

• Chrome: In the top right corner of the browser window, click the Chrome menu (the three parallel lines), click 'Help and About' and then 'About Google Chrome'. Your current version is the series of numbers beneath the 'Google Chrome' heading. When you're on this page Chrome will check for updates. 
• Firefox: Click the menu button (three parallel lines) in the upper right-hand corner, click the question mark and select 'About Firefox'. When the 'About' window opens, Firefox will check for updates and download them. 
• Safari should update without your help too. To make sure you have the latest version open the Apple menu and choose 'App Store'. In the top of the next window that appears, click the 'Updates' button. 

How to fix a corrupted PDF

Occasionally you might try to download a PDF and (after waiting a super long time) get an error telling you that your PDF is corrupted. 

That message generally means that your download timed out. This may be because of a lackluster internet connection or a large download size. Sometimes articles with tons of images will have trouble too.

The easiest way to get your PDF is to cut the problem off at the pass. Right click on the "Download PDF" button and select "Save Target As..." (or in Firefox "Save Link as..."). This will allow you to save the PDF to your computer and should allow for a faster, more successful download.