Sync Problem - Server version emptied, but obviously not really empty

bungaku

After I messed the data on my local machine and the cloud, I did the following two steps:

(a) restore local version (9.970 data sets) by overwriting zotero.sqlite with a good version.
(b) empty cloud-version in »My Library« completely (!)

After that, I tried to sync my local version with the cloud version, expecting that the empty cloud would simply copy local data - but then, my local machine reports conflicts between and insists on deleting 3.900 data sets from my local version.

Has anyone an idea what I could do? Thanks for caring in advance. Guido

adamsmith

See https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#restoring_your_zotero_data_from_a_backup_and_overwriting_synced_changes

You want to make sure you actually overwrite (not sync) the online library

(the only way to 'empty' the server-side library is to explicitly delete items and deletions, like all other operations, get synced, so what you're seeing is exactly as expected).

bungaku

Thanks a lot for your immediate answer. What I want is really to overwrite the online library, which I emptied totally.

I would love to follow the instructions - but, unfortunately, on the page

https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/sync_reset_options#replace_online_library

I do not find an explicit step-by-step-explanation how to use “Replace Online Library”. Can you help me?

bungaku

P.S.
I restored the main file (»zotero.sqlite«) on my local machine - and made backups again. So, the data on my local machine are OK now, and I simply want to copy them including the structures I created by collections, tags and so on to the cloud.

adamsmith

Sync tab of your preferences:
1.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u2433/5fkbklnfo5puselllah9.png


2.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u2433/gnfb8jxdyuti81rd8lpq.png

bungaku

THANK YOU SO VERY VERY MUCH! A BIG »DANKE VIELMALS« FROM FRANKFURT! It obviously works.