some issues with Zotero cloud storage (e.g. attachments not uploaded)

stroom

After upgrading cloud storage I aim to work from two devices in the same library. I started with syncing from laptop A (the source) to the cloud. The idea was to sync laptop B from the cloud.
I experienced the following (please see attachment for the settings I used):
- The attachments were hardly uploaded to www.zotero.org/stroom. I used the option to Reset based on Replace Online Library to make sure that old online-data would not ruin my database or files from laptop A. Laptop A was awake all night with Zotero running, no errors detected. Hitting the sync-button in the morning reacts normal: everything ok. But did not find a lot attachments online.
- I also noticed that none of my Saved Searches were synced to the cloud
- While syncing B from cloud, I did receive a handful attachments on my ssd, less than 1% (laptop A is powered off since I started with laptop B, 6 hours ago)
- This did not seem to work, so I started all over on laptop B (5 hours ago): copied the complete Zotero folder from Portable to B. After starting Zotero, everything was fine, obviously.
- Then I tried syncing B to cloud. That yielded 20 Conflicts with the option to use Local, Remote, or Merged version. But I could not detect any differences in the field-info presented on screen.
So I choose the option Local for all of them. Because I checked the Zotero folder on Portable ssd (which contains the Zotero-copy from A) on bit level with Total Commander, I trust that the Portable data is ok. Also checked Portable with B: all files under Storage are identical.
- After a check I find attachments in the cloud from entries 2013-2017, but hardly any recent more recent entries. So i'm missing about 50% of the attachments. While Zotero on laptop B says that sync is complete ('last sync. x min ago').
- On uploading the first sync from laptop A, it did not simply copied the Zotero.sqlite file to the cloud, but it immediately started to change this file on laptop A. It became slightly bigger in file size. The same happened when I started syncing from laptop B. Since not everything is running smoothly: is this normal behavior?



https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u2362511/dralwpt1mb05g4ihnysv.jpg

dstillman

For missing files, follow the steps on Files Not Syncing, which start with finding a computer where you actually have the files locally (generally the computer where you actually added them, unless you deleted them outside of Zotero since then).

Also note:

1) Replace Online Library — as it says at the top of the pane — isn't a troubleshooting step and should never be run in normal usage, and running that could have caused many more problems for you (e.g., conflicts). You would use that after restoring from a backup or from an old computer that you wanted to revert to. That's basically it.

2) Saved searches sync. They're just not supported in the web library.

3) zotero.sqlite is just a local database file. It doesn't get copied directly — that's not how syncing works. Don't worry about the file size.

stroom

Thank you. I've read Files Not Syncing, but cannot find a clue there. All my attachments seem to be in Storage folder. I never used linked files. Backup plan is unlimited. No error messages. An item I added yesterday on laptop B did update Zotero.org, including attachment, and to to laptop A as well.

What does worry me that I just found out that in my storage folder (laptop B) around 6000 files named '.zotero-ft-unprocessed'. That's seems to correspond with the amount of attachments that are not uploaded. They do not exist on the Portable USB-device (which I think should have 100% uncorrupted data, but misses what I changed yesterday)
And maybe several 100's '.zotero-ft-cache' are updated with yesterdays date. Belonging to entries I did not touch or open.

Laptop A is not accessible at the moment, but synced yesterday, so I expect the same files changes there.

That leaves me to option 5?
'If the file hasn't been uploaded:
If Device A is a computer, go to the Sync → Reset pane of the Zotero settings on Computer A and select Reset File Sync History for the library in question. (Do not use any other options in the Reset pane.) Resetting file sync history shouldn't be necessary under normal usage, but it will cause Zotero to check every attachment to make sure that it has been uploaded to the server.' etc.

Or is it safer to completely wipe everything from Zotero.org and start all over again? Items I changed/added yesterday is no big deal, I can redo that afterwards.

But I do not know how to do that. Because that's what I expected that Replace Online Library would do. And that obviously did not. But as you say under 1) (Replace Online Library -> do not touch), sorry, it just seemed to make sense to me. I wanted to start with a clean sheet, since the last time I synced to Zotero.org was maybe a decade ago. I just thought, this deletes everything online, let's start all over again based on the data from laptop A..

dstillman

You should follow the steps as written and provide the information it asks for.

stroom

Laptop A does not have the '.zotero-ft-unprocessed' nor the '.zotero-ft-cache' files. So I followed option 5 from laptop A. No errors, and I see a lot of attachments. So that's definitely much better. It only shows PDFs online, but other file types seem also to be available.
Laptop B still contains the strange files. So is there any way I can delete the entire Zotero data folder on laptop B and have it built up from online Zotero.org? That might fix this. And that would make me able to check whether 100% of the files were synced from laptop A to Zotero.org.
Uninstall and reinstall Zotero on laptop B?

dstillman

I'm not really sure what you're doing here. The page doesn't say anything about those files, so why are you even bringing them up? They're internal files managed by Zotero — forget about them. Again, if you're having trouble with your own attachment files not syncing, you need to follow our very carefully written troubleshooting steps — which we ask every single Zotero user with similar problems to follow — and, if the problem continues, provide the information they ask for. Otherwise I'm not continuing this discussion.