Upgrade StorageSync on multiple platforms/computers?
Hello, I'm going to start collecting a lot of material for my studies, therefore I want to be sure about how to set up all the system.
I currently have a "bibliography" folder outside the zotero directory where I manually save PDFs (this was suggested on this forum to avoid interference within the zotero folder).
I have a laptop at home (running Linux Kubuntu) and a netbook (Windows 7), and because I'm going to study in different location with the two computers, I'd like to know what is the best option to sync, both manually or by using tool online (dropbox&co). Of course I know that the best solution would be to buy zotero storage, but I'm looking for a free option.
I searched around and there are different guides which uses dropbox&co, but I'm not sure they are perfectly safe and they usually don't consider separate folder for PDFs. I currently don't let zotero download automatically full-text PDFs because otherwise they are uploaded to the 100mb storage.
I usually attach PDFS as links from the library to the "bibliography" folder.
I found that the roughest solution could be:
- zotero on the laptop at home, main usage.
- install zotero on the netbook, without activating any syncing options
- on the laptop, copy the following files on an USB key (or drop them online):
- the 3 .sqlite files relative to the database
- whole bibliography folder
- on the netbook, paste them overwriting the existing files + bibliography folder.
I noticed that this work for the database, but of course the PDFs' links are corrupted ( I could probably solve this by installing Linux on the netbook and using the same path?). However, this is still a decent solution because my PDFs are legible, so at worse I can still open them directly from the bibliography folder and not from zotero's library.
However, I want to ask you if you have better solution for this situation (I guess it's quite common for students and researches to work on multiple platforms), for example by using dropbox or box.net (its 5gb! and it seems to have webdav option too) or other free services. I can also use the standalone version if this has advantages.
Thank you
I currently have a "bibliography" folder outside the zotero directory where I manually save PDFs (this was suggested on this forum to avoid interference within the zotero folder).
I have a laptop at home (running Linux Kubuntu) and a netbook (Windows 7), and because I'm going to study in different location with the two computers, I'd like to know what is the best option to sync, both manually or by using tool online (dropbox&co). Of course I know that the best solution would be to buy zotero storage, but I'm looking for a free option.
I searched around and there are different guides which uses dropbox&co, but I'm not sure they are perfectly safe and they usually don't consider separate folder for PDFs. I currently don't let zotero download automatically full-text PDFs because otherwise they are uploaded to the 100mb storage.
I usually attach PDFS as links from the library to the "bibliography" folder.
I found that the roughest solution could be:
- zotero on the laptop at home, main usage.
- install zotero on the netbook, without activating any syncing options
- on the laptop, copy the following files on an USB key (or drop them online):
- the 3 .sqlite files relative to the database
- whole bibliography folder
- on the netbook, paste them overwriting the existing files + bibliography folder.
I noticed that this work for the database, but of course the PDFs' links are corrupted ( I could probably solve this by installing Linux on the netbook and using the same path?). However, this is still a decent solution because my PDFs are legible, so at worse I can still open them directly from the bibliography folder and not from zotero's library.
However, I want to ask you if you have better solution for this situation (I guess it's quite common for students and researches to work on multiple platforms), for example by using dropbox or box.net (its 5gb! and it seems to have webdav option too) or other free services. I can also use the standalone version if this has advantages.
Thank you
1. Keep your files as links and use dropbox to sync that folder between computers - i.e. place the bibliography folder with your linked pdf files into dropbox (you may have to re-do the links once, not sure).
This is 100% safe - what we warn against is placing the Zotero folder containing the .sqlite into dropbox.
2. Switch to storing your files within Zotero and use webdav to sync them.
In any case I'd recommend using Zotero data sync on all computers- there is really no reason to carry your sqlite around.
Both of these solutions are platform independent, but 2. has less of a chance of breaking.
Obviously there is 3. also use - and presumably pay for - Zotero file sync, but you apparently don't want to do that.
- files are not legible online because they are stored in a strange way.
- without an internet connection I won't have my full PDFs
Therefore, cause I already have many PDFs linked and stored on my pc, I also use dropbox by adding a symbolik link into the dropbox folder, pointing at the bibliography folder.
This let me avoid making the links again one-by-one, because if I move the bibliography folder in another location I lose all the links. This is really boring...Zotero should add a simple feature to move bibliographic path. Do you know if a bulk-editor for links is going to come in the next versions?
Given the different tries, to sum up the best solution I found is probably this:
- keep automatic PDFs attaching, and they will be stored on box.net (or other services) webdav.
- also manually download PDFs to my hard disk and attach them manually to the library as links.
- use dropbox to sync online my bibliography folder with all the PDFs files
- when changing laptop:
- if I have acces to internet I'll simply update the folder via dropbox and the online storage via webdav.
If not (e.g. when traveling), I'll manually transfer the bibliography folder (and the .sqlite file) with an USB key and use zotero offline.
This should cover all the possibilities! :)