My items do show up on zotero.org. But the sync wheel turning makes me always uncertain as to whether they will do so, and I fear that I'll ultimately lose newly input data. Further, the turning sync wheel periodically makes it impossible to perform certain functions without closing and rebooting Firefox. For example, I am unable, while synch wheel is turning, to open files that are returned to me in a search result. Or, I may be unable to link two files as "related."
In sum, while syncing is largely "working" for me, it is a fraught process and certainly perplexing as to what is transpiring and why.
Dan, thanks for your help. This does seem to be an on-again, off-again problem for me. Will try the latest branch build and see if that helps.
Much obliged. Mimi
Just to be totally clear, a spinning sync indicator isn't a problem. Uploads can take up to an hour or so at busy times, depending on size. Usually they take much less time. If you make edits while an upload is queued, Zotero could easily begin syncing again as soon as the first one finishes, which might give you the impression that it's been syncing the whole time when it actually hasn't.
The only time it's worth reporting a spinning sync icon is if it's been syncing for more than a few hours and you don't see recent local changes on zotero.org (and, for good measure, you've also tried restarting Firefox).
thanks for the clarification. Most of my uploads lately take under an hour... It was the ones that took days that got my initial attention. Checking on zotero.org will alleviate my uncertainty / worries
The only time it's worth reporting a spinning sync icon is if it's been syncing for more than a few hours
A few hours!? Could you clarify when it's OK to shut down firefox? And I'd really rather not have to check zotero.org to confirm the changes have been uploaded!
I constantly get these endlessly-spinning syncs, especially during US daytime, which I assume is when zotero.org servers are most busy. It's really quite aggravating not being sure if the sync is done, especially if I've just popped open my netbook to jot down a few notes.
For the record I have a large-ish library (1500 items), lots of notes, zero attachments. I have file syncing turned off. I'm not getting errors and have to my knowledge not lost any data.
Read what I actually wrote above. Most uploads take well under an hour. Today, for example, there haven't been any uploads that have been queued longer than five minutes.
As I noted above, most people who think that they're getting unending syncs are probably mistaken, and they're simply not noticing when one upload stops and another starts.
We'd still like to speed this up further and are planning additional major optimizations, but those will take time to implement, and, as today's queue indicates, things are pretty well under control right now.
Could you clarify when it's OK to shut down firefox?
Once it has displayed "Upload queued — waiting for sync server" for about a minute, the uploaded changes will almost certainly be written on the server even if you close Firefox. (The server error-checks uploads within a few seconds and returns errors to the client, and only a few very rare errors could cause final processing to fail.)
There are two catches:
1) Files aren't synced until after the metadata sync finishes, so if you close Firefox before it completes those won't be sent up.
2) If you made updates since the queued upload was sent up, those won't get sent up if you close Firefox. One thing we could probably do for this is include the queue time (or the last sync time) in that status message so it's clear that it's processing the latest batch of changes.
Upgrade Storage
In sum, while syncing is largely "working" for me, it is a fraught process and certainly perplexing as to what is transpiring and why.
Much obliged. Mimi
The only time it's worth reporting a spinning sync icon is if it's been syncing for more than a few hours and you don't see recent local changes on zotero.org (and, for good measure, you've also tried restarting Firefox).
I constantly get these endlessly-spinning syncs, especially during US daytime, which I assume is when zotero.org servers are most busy. It's really quite aggravating not being sure if the sync is done, especially if I've just popped open my netbook to jot down a few notes.
For the record I have a large-ish library (1500 items), lots of notes, zero attachments. I have file syncing turned off. I'm not getting errors and have to my knowledge not lost any data.
As I noted above, most people who think that they're getting unending syncs are probably mistaken, and they're simply not noticing when one upload stops and another starts.
We'd still like to speed this up further and are planning additional major optimizations, but those will take time to implement, and, as today's queue indicates, things are pretty well under control right now. Once it has displayed "Upload queued — waiting for sync server" for about a minute, the uploaded changes will almost certainly be written on the server even if you close Firefox. (The server error-checks uploads within a few seconds and returns errors to the client, and only a few very rare errors could cause final processing to fail.)
There are two catches:
1) Files aren't synced until after the metadata sync finishes, so if you close Firefox before it completes those won't be sent up.
2) If you made updates since the queued upload was sent up, those won't get sent up if you close Firefox. One thing we could probably do for this is include the queue time (or the last sync time) in that status message so it's clear that it's processing the latest batch of changes.