I have many, many duplicates - can I accept all merges somehow?

james.k.russell

I have been migrating a large (>30,000 citation) library from EndNote. It is essential that I be able to access it on a desktop and a laptop, and that these be synchronized. I imported everything into the desktop. It did not produce a library on the laptop (using standalone on both, with citation syncing only, no file syncing). So, I've been importing copies of the same files I imported on the desktop onto the laptop. Somehow, this results in lots of duplicates. I get notices that the sync server is finding conflicts - but if it were really working right I wouldn't have to import a 2nd time on the laptop (where otherwise, references imported on the desktop never seem to show up). Is there a graceful way out of this mess?

adamsmith

did you not see my reply to your other post?
http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/25626/problem-syncing-2-computers/#Item_3

importing the same endnote file is a very bad idea, precisely because of the duplicates you're seeing. That's why I told you not to do that. Start afresh on your laptop. Follow my instructions in the other thread.

james.k.russell

Adam,

Thanks for the quick response. Sorry, somehow I saw only part of your earlier response. Will clean up the laptop and start over.

Jim

adamsmith

Oh, and if you're already seeing sync conflicts, you should probably do a "Restore to server" from your Desktop, to be safe.
The option is in the Zotero preferences under Sync-->Reset
Make sure you do this in the right direction, i.e. <b>to</b> server <b>not</b> from server.

james.k.russell

Okay, making progress. First I cleaned up the library on the desktop, removing duplicates (not the ones resulting from double imports - ones that were already present in EndNote). I've done this with automatic syncing off. Next, I've synced to server (or at least started that - there's no progress indication so I don't know if it is done). Next, I'm copying the entire Zotero directory from the desktop to the laptop. Perhaps unfortunately, the way I did this wiped out the <random string> level on the laptop and brought over the <random string> level from the desktop - so that they are now the same. Before I start Zotero standalone on the laptop, I wanted to ask whether I need to do something to correct this - that is, do I need a different profile and <random string> on the laptop, or is it okay if it is identical to the profile and <random string> on the desktop?

adamsmith

I'm not actually sure what will happen - you can't do any damage, but I suspect Zotero might not automatically see data you imported. If I'm right about that, you can do either of two things:

1. Zotero will re-create an empty library with a new random string when you restart it. You can close Zotero and then move the full library to that new profile, this time by just replacing the "Zotero" folder, not the entire profile path.
2. You can just point Zotero to the altered location of the Library in the Advanced tab of the Zotero preferences.

Either should lead to the same result.
Make sure you keep syncing disabled while you're trying this out. Once you're happy with how things look, turn auto-syncing on.