Zotero isn't syncing

Melani99

I'm having problems with sync. All of the boxes are checked correctly in preferences, and I have had no problem in the past. But now, despite the fact that the little green arrow is always swirling, it is not automatically syncing. Even worse, I can't make it manually sync: I move my mouse over the arrow, and it shows the box for "sync with Zotero server" but I can't actually click on that box.

This is all a problem with Computer A. Computer B syncs perfectly.

Any thoughts?
MM

adamsmith

you've restarted Firefox I take it?
I'd temporarily disable automatic syncing - the reason you can't manually sync is that Zotero thinks (correctly or not) that it's already in the middle of a sync process.
See if you can provide an error ID
http://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_bugs

Melani99

Thanks. I have restarted Firefox, several times. I did as you suggested, and tried manual sync. It let me get started, and then said something like "getting data from the server" for well over an hour. Now I'm back to where I started.

I've been using this version of Zotero for awhile, and this has actually been a problem for awhile, but I didn't know it till I tried to restore something and saw that my last sync was 152 days ago, despite the happy whirring of the green arrow.

No error ID to report - I check as the link you sent suggested.

Any other ideas? Thanks.

dstillman

I see a number of repeated full downloads of your library data from today. Firefox will freeze temporarily as Zotero processes the download. If you force-quit Firefox, it will just happen again.

Melani99

Thanks for this. Firefox hasn't frozen, just Zotero's sync: the little green arrow is whirring, and I haven't restarted Firefox since the last time I tried to download, which was about 3 hours ago. It still says my last sync on this computer was 152 days ago, and it officially offers me the option of syncing when I scoll over the green arrow, but it won't let me click on that and the green arrow is still moving. Automatic syncing is turned off, so it may still be processing the download ... but that's quite a long time.?

I did download to computer B, the one that works, about 4 hours ago, but indeed have tried at least 3 times on computer A, the problem child.
Thanks

Melani99

Still no sync, after a total of 7 hours. I don't know whether to close Firefox or not. Obviously, something isn't happening right here. I hate the idea that I have to go back to using portable zotero to move between computers...

bobryan1948

I'm having similar problems. I first set up zotero on my work computer. Then, at home, I set up zotero but it did not pull in any of the items I had put in my library at work. I created a small collection at home. Back at work the next day, I finally got it to sync. I now had all the items I had collected while at work, plus the items I had collected at home. Now, I'm back at home. Here, my collection started out as I had left it at home the previous evening. It did not pull in any of the items I had collected at work on the second day.

Then I restarted Firefox. When I checked my collection, one of the sub folders appeared twice. Also, a bunch of items appeared in the wrong folder.

It appears to me that the syncing with the server is lagging way behind the changes I am making. As a result, when I go to a different computer and it does sync, I find my items in a state that they were in at some previous time, but not the most recent time that I worked on my collection.

Is there something I need to do in order to get the syncing to get caught up?

Thanks.

minowa

The same problem as the one Melani99 has.
Zotero doesn't report any error. I just see an endlessly rotating green arrow "sync with zotero server". Restart of my firefox and my Mac didn't help.

Is there any ideas?
Thanks.

minowa

The problem is fixed.
I don't know why.
But after a number of iteration of restarting of all firefox with zotero on all my PCs, Syncing started.

Thanks.

dstillman

bobryan1948 and minowa: Start new threads if you have sync problems.

dstillman

Still no sync, after a total of 7 hours. I don't know whether to close Firefox or not.

Yes, restart Firefox.

Extended sync queues are no longer an issue. We're investigating the cause of the recent spate of unending spinning reports, but they're not due to server load, and there's no actual sync activity, so just restart Firefox.

Melani99

Yes, I did this, and everything worked perfectly. Thanks!

Melani99

OH NO: The whirring green arrow is back, and no sync to the server! (In other words, I'm inputing but it isn't showing up on the server version. I have auto backup UNchecked, so there shouldn't be whirring at all.)

Melani99

I now find that Zotero will sync ADDITIONS to my Computer A database, but only after I close Firefox. And it cannot, somehow, manage deletions: anything I delete on computer A is staying in the library. Then, when the thing gets ambitious, it puts deleted collections back onto computer A. But it does not put back deleted items -- they stay on the server, but are not reinserted back to Computer A on the close-out sync.

Melani99

Sorry, but I have to add one more detail: Although Zotero is partially or fully syncing to the computer, it doesn't know it. When I scroll over the green arrow, it still says "last sync 153 days ago." And, again, this is even when the server has taken on new items -- although it is not registering my deletes, as I said above.

dstillman

Restart Firefox completely and provide a Debug ID for a few minutes of a sync attempt that doesn't end.

Melani99

OK: Debug ID:
D1849741039

dstillman

ERROR: columns itemID, tagID are not unique

You're just getting a sync error. Do you not see the sync error icon next to the sync icon when that completes?

Other people have gotten this error, and at least in those cases it appeared to be due to a rather insidious low-level bug in Firefox itself.

As a workaround, go to about:config in the Firefox address bar, look for javascript.options.tracejit.chrome, and double-click it to set it to false. Then restart Firefox and try the sync again.

If the sync goes through, you should be able to reset that setting to true in about:config. (If you don't, Firefox will run a bit slower.)

Melani99

Once in the 20+ times I've done this, I got a sync error exclamation point, but that disappeared before I could even click on it. However, the error icon did show up during the sync that I sent you the debugging info for. Anyway, I did what you suggested, and the sync did what it has done before: first the constant whirring. Then, after a restart, all the new items are on the server, and everything I had tried to delete is also on the server and back in my local Zotero.

I ran the debugging process again, since I think that might have been an unusual sync, and since the work-around didn't work. Here's the ID:
D1650394314

thanks.

dstillman

Restart Firefox and provide another Debug ID for at least ten minutes of spinning.

(That debug output doesn't show a problem. Your client is requesting a full download of all data in all your groups, and an uncached full download for you is taking around 5 minutes.)

dstillman

Also, you should be able to see whether a download took place based on whether Firefox froze and the number of lines in the debug output went up greatly. The workaround I suggested above would only be useful in that situation, since that's when you'd see the error. I would leave that setting set until this is resolved.

Melani99

D780752676
20+ minutes of arrow

One weird thing: this time, I saw a little blue bar beside the arrow during the sync. But when I closed the zotero pane and then brought it back (after the debugging was done), the bar was gone.

Same problems with the sync, though.

dstillman

The blue bar is the file sync step, and it happens—only—after a successful metadata sync. You can hover over it to see progress.

What does it say now when you hover over the sync icon?

And this time, restart Firefox, sync, and provide a Report ID (not a Debug ID).

Melani99

Report ID
13815338666

dstillman

That doesn't appear to be a valid Report ID.

Melani99

Ooops: one too many numbers. here goes:

1381533866

adamsmith

note that you can copy and paste the number from the error report window.

dstillman

No Zotero errors in there.

At this point, I'd recommend deleting the Firefox application from /Applications (which we almost never recommend, but there's something very strange going on on your system), reinstalling it, creating a new, empty Firefox profile, installing Zotero into it, and temporarily pointing it to your existing Zotero data directory in the Advanced pane of the Zotero preferences. Then, once you see your data in that profile, enter your Zotero credentials in the preferences, disable auto-sync, and try syncing manually from there.

arggem

I'd temporarily disable automatic syncing - the reason you can't manually sync is that Zotero thinks (correctly or not) that it's already in the middle of a sync process.

BINGO! We have a winner!

After watching my green arrow spin for 7 days,having rebooted, restarted FF several times and disabled extensions, I figured it was time to investigate and found this thread with adamsmith's great advice. I turned off autosync, restarted FF, did a manual sync and BAM...it synced! Thanks!

shagmw

Hasn't worked for me - I'm eight days and still spinning despite doing all the above :-(

dstillman

Upgrade to Zotero 2.1.8, now available from zotero.org, and try again.