Not syncing and problem loading online collections

eshields

I've been trying to download and upload since yesterday. I have followed the advice for syncing (closed and re-opened Firefox, checked that Firefox.exe was closed in processes, restarted the machine; checked that Zotero 2.0.9 is showing up in tools > extensions). The sync wheel has been turning for 4 hours since I restarted the machine, with no last sync time and the message "Getting updated data from the sync server."

When I go to my account online, I see that a folder a created yesterday has not been uploaded yet. When I try to access my personal library, I can see some documents, but I also see the message "There was a problem loading collections. Please try again in a few minutes." This has been going on for the last 5 hours.

I need to put articles in a group library ASAP. Since I can't do that, I am putting them in a new folder on my machine, but I really need everything to sync.

What are the next steps?

Thanks, Elisabeth

dstillman

You have a queued download from 34 minutes ago—that's not four hours.

dstillman

I see a large download process finishing for you at 3:37 EST (about an hour ago)—but if you restarted Firefox without letting it get processed locally, it would have to be generated all over again. Note that there could be a temporary Firefox freeze as Zotero processed all the data.

eshields

I wonder if a colleague has put something huge in the group library. I restarted the machine around 11:30 am and have left it alone ever since. It was also running overnight. There aren't many items, so the download can't be large unless one is really big.

I don't see anything new as of 3:37, though. The only new download should be a new group library.
Thanks, Elisabeth

dstillman

It's a full download of all your libraries—this generally shouldn't happen unless you are syncing a new computer or reset something, but there are a few other cases (which we're trying to track down and minimize) where it can occur for an existing library. Is this a new machine? Did you reset from the server?

You wouldn't see anything new as of 3:37—if a full download is queued now, it means the download that finished at 3:37 didn't get processed locally for some reason.

At any rate, let it go for a while.

eshields

It isn't a new machine, and as far as I can tell all my documents are here (I sampled a few). I'll leave it on overnight again. It will shut itself down after it's been inactive for a certain period of time - I'll try to find where that is set and de-activate it.

eshields

I have 2 new group library folders on my machine this morning - that's good. I had 97 files to reconcile, which I did. (I don't know why, though, because most of them were old files that neither I nor anyone else has touched lately).

I also had a sync error message generated within the last 30 minutes. It was a Javascript syntax error, Report ID 1513601787. This was the message:

[unrelated error removed — D.S.]

dstillman

That doesn't show a sync error. If you're getting a sync error, generate a new Report ID and tell us what it says when you click the sync error icon (not when you click Report Error).