Unable to sync from Mac to Server

mrrainey

This is a recent problem, syncing was normal a week or so ago.

Debug ID is D264629273

I noticed that the position in an ebook was off between ipad and mac, check on the web app and it matched the ipad (which was behind--I had read further on the mac). Clicking the sync button produces an error that suggests newer versions had been used, however I have not updated the ipad since well before the last time a sync was accomplished successfully, and no updates are available according to the button on the mac.

dstillman

You're using the Zotero 8 beta on one of your devices:

https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/504686/#Comment_504686

mrrainey

Ahh, on the other Mac.

But does that explain why the mac with 7.0.30 won't sync back to the server? And why now, when a week ago or so everything was working fine? All other sources-8 beta mac, ipad, server are at an earlier position in the book.

Before submitting this post, I installed the beta version on the other mac. It's now syncing, but it adopted the earlier reading position on the server. Thankfully my annotations were not also deleted, but I'm still a little nervous. Is there some way to make offline backups up of metadata?

dstillman

And why now, when a week ago or so everything was working fine?

It's explained in the post I linked to. Existing items were updated when you updated to the latest Z8 beta a little over a week ago, and those items won't sync to other devices not running Z8. If you're using the Z8 beta, you should always run it on all your computers. But regardless, Z7 and iOS will get updates to make them compatible with the new fields shortly.

Reading position should continue to sync regardless, since that syncs before it gets to item data. It's possible you briefly changed to an earlier page on one device, and then that position propagated to other devices. Reading position uses a simpler syncing mechanism that doesn't support conflict resolution and just chooses the server side (because it wouldn't be worth showing a conflict-resolution dialog for reading position). But regardless, ending up on the wrong page for whatever reason has no relation to syncing of your library data, so you have nothing to worry about there.

As with all important data, though, cloud-synced or not, you should always have backups of your Zotero data directory as part of a general system backup (e.g., with Time Machine). This is particularly important if you're running beta software.

mrrainey

I super-appreciate your thoughtful responsiveness.

Sadly, this issue persists. Here is the debug number D17353762.

I have updated the uploading mac to 8.0-beta.24+faf8f2510. It still will not sync page number from the mac to the server; it will sync annotations (at least highlights).

mrrainey

Update: the other mac will sync page numbers to the ipad, but they do not show up on the web version or the uploading mac; annotations seem to sync among all.