Syncing attachments incomplete?

andypascal
I am syncing my full library to a new computer, but the sync ends very quickly, with only some of the attachments downloaded. These attachments are on both Webdav and Zotero storage (in group libraries) - both are affected. At first I had the impression new attachments continued appearing after the arrow stopped, as if sync was still running in the background, but now I'm not so sure - is this possible? The last time I synced so many files, the arrow continued turning until it was finished, and hovering over it gave a count of the files still left to download - should this still be the behaviour? How can I tell whether attachments are still coming?
I'm running Z 9.02 on W11. The files should all be there, as I have 2 other computers where they appear. Thanks for your help...
  • adamsmith
    What are your sync settings? In many instances, setting file sync to "as needed" is a more preferable setting and that'd only download files when you try to open them.
  • andypascal
    It was "at sync time", but I can change this. I just noticed that it is still running sync from time to time, even though I didn't make any changes to the library - it currently says it last synced about 10 minutes ago, although I hadn't been on the computer for the last 30 minutes. If this means it will end up pulling everything down, then it's OK, as long as it will eventually do it.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    If the arrow is stopped, it should have synced completely. You can always click the sync button manually. If it spins for a second and stops, you should be in sync.
  • andypascal
    OK, but then there is a problem - only a small percentage of my attachments have been downloaded. I've now changed it to "as needed", but if I try to open a PDF that isn't there, it just says it can't find it and offers me to locate it. I'm assuming this is not what should happen in this case..?
    I just checked, and this PDF is available on another computer, which syncs to the same Zotero & Webdav accounts.
    Would it be simpler to just copy the whole directory structure over from that computer, via USB key? If so, is there anything I should do/not do to avoid corrupting anything? Its about 2 GB, so I'd want to get it right.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited 3 hours ago
    You're at your 300 MB quota, so any files above that would never have been uploaded to our servers. If you're using WebDAV, something isn't configured properly on one of your devices. See Files Not Syncing for troubleshooting steps.

    If you just want to transfer the whole data directory, you can do that, but syncing will work if everything is configured properly:

    https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/transferring_a_library
  • andypascal
    OK, it seems the attachments hadnt all synced up from the other computer, although there were no errors. It seems to be fine now - thanks.
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