Upgrade Storagetag too long to sync with server
I haven't been able to sync my zotero library (I'm using with the server, because I always get the error that tags are too long to sync with the server.
When I try to delete or edit them manually, this takes several seconds per item, and there seem to be a lot of items (probably most of my library).
I have lots of references imported from various places, including the Science Citation Index and EndNote, so it would be almost impossible for me to trace the source of each reference, or to re-import after some manual editing. Is there a faster way to remove all the tags in my current zotero library so I can sync it?
When I try to delete or edit them manually, this takes several seconds per item, and there seem to be a lot of items (probably most of my library).
I have lots of references imported from various places, including the Science Citation Index and EndNote, so it would be almost impossible for me to trace the source of each reference, or to re-import after some manual editing. Is there a faster way to remove all the tags in my current zotero library so I can sync it?
This is an old discussion that has not been active in a long time. Before commenting here, you should strongly consider starting a new discussion instead. If you think the content of this discussion is still relevant, you can link to it from your new discussion.
I had the same problem and fixed it with this work around. Now my files sync fine. I've turned off the automatic tags in preferences to prevent it from happening again. What I did was to open the zotero database in a third party database editor, identify the long tags and replace them with something short. This is riskier than editing in Zotero, but works much better because it's extremely fast and easy. As you mention, editing the tags within Zotero is aggravatingly and impractically slow. That said, be careful and make a full backup first, as there is always some risk of corrupting your database this way. It's worked without a problem for me.
Here's the details:
1) Download and install the free SQLite Database Browser.
2) Close Zotero, to prevent it writing to the database while you work on it. In the SQLite Browser, open the zotero.sqlite file found in the Zotero profile directory (see zotero support for the exact location on your computer)
3) In SQLite Browser, go to the 'Browse Data' tab. Select the table 'tags' in the dropdown menu. This will bring up a list of tags and their info. Pull the 'name' column label wide so you can easily read the names and identify the unusually long ones.
CAUTION: I don't know the zotero code, so I made what seemed conservative assumptions about the effects of editing the database. In particular, it's probably a bad idea to outright delete a tag because another table may refer to that deleted tagID and do something bad when it goes looking for it. So instead, I just replaced the long names with short ones. It only took a few minutes to find and replace the few dozen extremely long names.
4) After replacing the extremely long names with something short, save the database file and close the program.
5) Now restart Zotero. It should sync normally without the long tag error.
Hope this helps.