synced libraries are different sizes on three different installs of Zotero

gmolinario

Hi All,

Here's my issue. I am embarking on PhD thesis writing. I have been using Zotero for 4 years and love it. I've used the firefox version on two PCs and a Mac and have the standalone version too (not sure why).

Zotero library is clearly set to sync.

At the beginning, I was collecting only journal citations and not actual PDFs, at some point I started collecting PDFs as well.

At some point one of my my PCs had the Zotero library on Dropbox. After reading about the issues, I put it back on a local folder. Now all my Zotero instances point to local (non dropbox) folders.

Everything works and is fine.

However, the size of each one of my 'Zotero' folders, is different, and is different from the size of data stored on Zotero online. I know that if it ain't broke don't fix it, but I want a clean slate with the strongest possible set up, and I am wondering why all my folders are different sizes (shouldn't they...sync?) and if it's an indicator of pending doom.

Thanks

Giuseppe

adamsmith

you'd expect them to all be different size. Zotero saves some automatic back-ups, e.g., those would likely be of different size. I think the amount of space that small files (like the parts of snapshots) take on Mac and PC may be different. The online library isn't entirely different: It only measures your attachments, not the size of your database, and the attachment snapshots are zipped.

It doesn't sound like you have anything to worry about.

dstillman

By "size" do you mean the actual recursive filesystem size of the Zotero data directory? What about just the 'storage' directory within it? Note that the size of the zotero.sqlite file (and backups) can be different because Zotero currently doesn't automatically trigger full-text indexing of synced files. What kind of difference are we talking about? Also, what's the difference in total files/folders, assuming it tells you that?

The local size isn't particularly comparable to your online storage (which should be less), so don't worry about that.

PS

i have a similar problem, or worry

i have just bought 2 the gig filesync option and the size of my online storage says 542 mb while the size on my harddrive says 839 MB (880 087 993 bytes) (or 939 MB (985 501 696 bytes)if you go by "size on disk"). This is just the "storage"-folder in the zotero local library, not including sqlite-files or anything else. Should i be worried by this or is it alright?

dstillman

Should i be worried by this

No.