Biblio in double!

Lucie Etienne
After a synchronization, all my biblio has been doubled. It is now a problem when I want to cite it in word. Could you tell me how to un-doubled them? (I know this is possible in Endnote for example, I hope it is also here!!). Thank you for your help.
  • adamsmith
    It's not easily possible no - but this really shouldn't have happened in the first place. Did you do anything out of the ordinary? Export and re-import your library? Anything else that you changed in Zotero or on your computer that could have caused this?
  • dstillman
    The only way this can occur is if you export/import your library or upgrade two Zotero 1.0 libraries to 2.x on different computers.
  • Lucie Etienne
    No it happens when I am synchronizing my library from another computer.
    The sync is not working properly, it always makes my library double. I don't know why, and I just would like to take the doubles out and NOT synchronize anymore.
  • dstillman
    We're all talking about syncing. I'm explaining the only way that you can get doubles after syncing. There is simply no way for you to get doubles in normal usage.

    Delete the doubles and you won't get them again unless you export/import items.
  • zachbe
    Dan, I'm sorry, but I absolutely have not exported or imported items, and my library has doubled (twice so far today). It happens when someone syncs his library with another computer that had his library on it, but had not been synced. None of the items have today as their date of accession. Some are last month, some are the month before.

    I agree that if one syncs from the beginning this shouldn't happen. But if one is in the habit of using many computers without syncing (e.g. library on a shared hard drive or on a flash drive), and one tries to switch to syncing, the library will double each time that new computer is synced.

    Perhaps a workaround is when one is using a computer and isn't sure if it has been synced, to delete everything in the library before entering enabling syncing?
  • dstillman
    edited June 14, 2011
    It happens when someone syncs his library with another computer that had his library on it, but had not been synced.
    It's exporting/importing or syncing two libraries that were upgraded from 1.0 separately. That's it. Maybe the second one is what you mean, but there's literally no other way to get duplicates. Any items created from Zotero 2.0 onward are given identifiers that prevent them from being duplicated during syncing.

    If you've been transferring around a Zotero 1.0 library and upgrading it on various computers, though, you would absolutely get duplicates.
  • zachbe
    Right, that is my experience. I was transferring around a 1.0 library and upgrading it on various computers.

    So if I sit down at a computer with 1.0 on it, I should avoid upgrading it, right?

    And if I sit down at a computer without zotero on it, I should install 1.0 if possible?

    What about my workaround, to delete my library from a questionable computer before syncing it? Would that effectively prevent duplicates?
  • adamsmith
    edited June 14, 2011
    What about my workaround, to delete my library from a questionable computer before syncing it? Would that effectively prevent duplicates?
    yes - but to be save, make sure to do it right: don't delete your items in Zotero (i.e. _don't_ use "delete selected item from library") but instead just delete your entire zotero data folder (after making a back-up copy), while Firefox is closed.
    http://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data
    Zotero will then create a fresh, empty library the next time you start it and you can then sync to populate it.
  • dstillman
    Why are you still using a 1.0 library? Just take the 2.1 library with most recent data from one of your computers and put it on the flash drive, and never use a 1.0 library again.
  • zachbe
    Dan, weren't you advising me to sync rather than use a flash drive? I'm trying to sync with all the computers I use, rather than using a flash drive. Some of the computers still have 1.0, and I want to avoid doubling.
  • dstillman
    Sure, you should use syncing if you want to use syncing. Just don't use a 1.0 library.
  • zachbe
    What do you suggest I do when, on a computer I haven't used in a while, I open firefox and find my library, never having been synced there, and zotero 1.0?
  • dstillman
    Delete the library files, as adamsmith says, and either sync or copy in a 2.1 library.
  • dstillman
    And to be clear, I'm saying not to use Zotero 1.0 at all.
  • adamsmith
    edited June 14, 2011
    upgrade the computer to Zotero 2.1 and get rid of their old Zotero library as I describe above - how you replace it, whether by syncing or using a copy of a 2.1. library from another computer transported by flash drive - doesn't matter. The latter has the advantage of transporting all attached files even if you don't have enough storage for file syncing.
    I think the "in a while" - which would really have to mean a year and a half, which is when 2.0 went final - threw us off a little.

    edit: note that this is the same that Dan is saying, we overlapped.
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