Upgrade StorageUnexpected activation of automatic syncing
Unexpected activation of automatic syncing
I have used Zotero for many years and have deliberately had automatic syncing disabled since I first installed Zotero (around version 6 or 7). I did not enable it again.
Today, after updating to Zotero 10.0, I discovered that “Sync automatically” was enabled in my preferences. I also discovered that my local library had already been uploaded to the Zotero server.
I immediately disabled automatic syncing again.
I have since checked the relevant profile configuration. The normal profile uses /home/mh/Zotero, and its current prefs.js contains:
extensions.zotero.sync.autoSync = false
This is expected because I disabled the setting today after discovering it.
I have also confirmed that file syncing is currently disabled and have purged the Zotero Storage contents of “My Library”. My local Zotero data is backed up.
My question is therefore not how to disable syncing. I know how to do that.
My question is: what could have enabled “Sync automatically” without my explicitly enabling it?
In particular, can a Zotero update change this preference from disabled to enabled? If so, under what circumstances?
I consider automatic uploading of a user's library after they had deliberately disabled synchronization to be a serious trust issue. I would therefore like to understand what happened and whether there is a documented reason for this behavior.
I also need to remove the accidentally synchronized library data from the Zotero server.
I want to keep my local library and my Zotero account, but I do not want the accidentally synchronized library data (items, collections, tags, notes, etc.) to remain on Zotero's servers.
I have already used “Purge Storage in My Library”, which apparently removes the stored files but leaves the library data visible in the web interface.
How can I delete the synchronized library data from the server while keeping my local library intact and keeping my Zotero account?
I do not want to delete my local library, and I do not want to replace the online library with my local library. I want the online copy removed.
I have used Zotero for many years and have deliberately had automatic syncing disabled since I first installed Zotero (around version 6 or 7). I did not enable it again.
Today, after updating to Zotero 10.0, I discovered that “Sync automatically” was enabled in my preferences. I also discovered that my local library had already been uploaded to the Zotero server.
I immediately disabled automatic syncing again.
I have since checked the relevant profile configuration. The normal profile uses /home/mh/Zotero, and its current prefs.js contains:
extensions.zotero.sync.autoSync = false
This is expected because I disabled the setting today after discovering it.
I have also confirmed that file syncing is currently disabled and have purged the Zotero Storage contents of “My Library”. My local Zotero data is backed up.
My question is therefore not how to disable syncing. I know how to do that.
My question is: what could have enabled “Sync automatically” without my explicitly enabling it?
In particular, can a Zotero update change this preference from disabled to enabled? If so, under what circumstances?
I consider automatic uploading of a user's library after they had deliberately disabled synchronization to be a serious trust issue. I would therefore like to understand what happened and whether there is a documented reason for this behavior.
I also need to remove the accidentally synchronized library data from the Zotero server.
I want to keep my local library and my Zotero account, but I do not want the accidentally synchronized library data (items, collections, tags, notes, etc.) to remain on Zotero's servers.
I have already used “Purge Storage in My Library”, which apparently removes the stored files but leaves the library data visible in the web interface.
How can I delete the synchronized library data from the server while keeping my local library intact and keeping my Zotero account?
I do not want to delete my local library, and I do not want to replace the online library with my local library. I want the online copy removed.
This discussion has been closed.
There's nothing special about the auto-sync setting. It's just one of many settings stored in the prefs.js file in your Zotero profile folder. No Zotero code would reset it, but this is just the Firefox profile system, and various things — a crash at shutdown while Zotero was writing to prefs.js, some system cleanup utility, a disk error — could cause settings to get reset to their defaults.
But given that your data hasn't actually been syncing, and that your Zotero client has been making sync connections this whole time, you're likely misremembering and simply disabled My Library & Feeds syncing in the "Choose Libraries…" window in the settings. That would cause Zotero to connect to the sync server without actually syncing data for the last year.
In any case, if you never want to sync, you don't rely on one or two lines in a prefs file — you just don't set up Zotero for syncing. If you set up syncing previously, unlink it from the sync settings and keep local data.
I've cleared your online data.
Thanks.
> you're likely misremembering
I'm not. Syncing my work to a foreign server would be the last thing I'd ever do!
And having auto-sync enabled but My Library & Feeds syncing disabled is the only way for Zotero to have been making sync connections for the last year without actually syncing data.
You've repeatedly misunderstood things in these forums and then argued with us when we tried to explain them to you. I'm done with it. Closing this.