Syncing trouble

valentijn

As some other people have been reporting, while syncing the arrow doesn't stop spinning, saying 'syncing files'(I waited for two hours). At another occasion, when I had changed the syncing option for attachments to 'as needed', it did terminate but all 163 uploaded files did not correspond to copies on the server(which apparently had been left there at an earlier syncing attempt) so it asked me to choose between local and remote files for each and every one of them. I have been using Zotero on a second computer elsewhere, in my case from a USB stick in combination with Firefox portable. There I have the same problem. At home I use Zotero with a regular Firefox. Have updated to Zotero 4.0.8. Did also disable all other addons but that didn't help.

My debug ID is: D826484857

Would anyone able to suggest a solution? And what causes this problem?

Thanks!
Valentijn

dstillman

Are you running any security software? If so, try temporarily disabling it.

If that doesn't help, I may have another thing for you to try, though it'll take me a couple days.

valentijn

Disabled the Windows Firewall and my Avast Antivirus program. Then syncing did indeed work, but only on the desktop version of Zotero/Firefox. I subsequently tried to sync my Zotero Library on a USB stick with Portable Firefox. At first, I opted for not syncing any attachments, which worked just fine. Then I opted for: sync attachment files (using Zotero) 'as needed'. That made the progress bar appear after a while, and it got busy. However, it did end with an error: (Error report 1784826748).

And I'm also curious: is the antivirus program causing the compatibility problem or is it the firewall? And will this be resolved in future releases or should I always be turning off security software while syncing in the future? I'd prefer to sync automatically have the protection of course.

But for now this will work: the error in syncing the portable version is more serious, since my workflow depends on it (I upload papers from a public university computer)

Thanks for your assistance!

megan.reif

I am having similar problems. Eventually, I get a window to resolve 1323 conflicts (I deleted many notes from an earlier import from EndNote with the Endnote ID: #XXXX). I select for all 1323 conflicts that I want to keep the local choice of having deleted the item. I get through it, it says okay, but then the next time I log on the same 1323 references want to be synced.

Is there still no way to automatically tell Zotero to prefer ALL LOCAL changes in the sync, rather than having to resolve every conflict one by one?

I had made the changes on only one PC and have not logged into Zotero Firefox.

I checked the database integrity, translator updates, etc.

adamsmith

you can reset to server from the reset panel of the Zotero library from the "Reset" tab in the sync tab of the Zotero preferences - that will replace the version on the server with whatever you have locally, so only do that if that's what you want.

dstillman

Megan: Before you reset anything, start a new thread (sync issues should almost always go in new threads) and provide a Report ID.

valentijn

Thanks Adam, for your comment. Unfortunately, replacing the content on the server with my local library won't work for me, because I have different subsets of references on the USB/Firefox portable and my desktop firefox at home (see above). Do you have any idea what may have caused the syncing error for the attachments using the USB version? Here is the error report ID again: 1784826748. Thanks.

dstillman

You're getting a different, unrelated error from the USB installation. Can you provide a Debug ID for a sync attempt that produces that one?

For the non-USB one, certainly you shouldn't have to disable security software, but if that works, it means the software is interfering with Zotero's ability to save to the disk in some way. If you have a way of configuring it to allow Firefox to write to the Zotero data directory, that would likely help. If not, and you're set on using that security software, you could try syncing from Zotero Standalone, which is less likely to be affected by the restrictions (which are probably there to protect against browser-based exploits from affecting the rest of your system).

valentijn

Synced using the Zotero with the USB/Firefox Portable, with the option downloading attachment files 'as needed'. I did not turn off security software. All other addons were disabled. It did show a progress bar, but after completion, it ended in an error. Report ID 1943780323; Debug ID D1500581037. Please let me know if I should run it again with the security software disabled. Note that syncing the non-USB Zotero did not terminate at all when the security software was working. Thanks a lot.

dstillman

Are your system clock and timezone set correctly?

valentijn

Yes they are, on my computer, which generated the error when syncing. But perhaps not on the public university on which I generated the items in the library (on USB) I would like to sync. Could that be the problem? And if so, do you know why I haven't had this problem in previous months? Thanks.

dstillman

No, it'd be on the computer where you're getting the syncing errors that look like this:

Unexpected status code 403 for request 0/CTCT3VSJ in Zotero.Sync.Storage.ZFS.downloadFile()

There could be other causes, but I'm seeing a lot of messages in your debug output suggesting that the time zone is incorrect, or at least is being reported incorrectly to Firefox. I assume you've tried restarting your computer?

These could also be intermittent errors that will just go away once that computer is completely in sync. If you hover over the blue progress bar during the sync, do you see it making progress each time, with the number of files to sync going down, or is it trying to download the same number of files each time?

valentijn

In the end, I solved the problem by using the desktop zotero/firefox, setting the data directory to the data directory on my usb stick, and syncing. That worked. After that, I could also sync with the zotero/firefox portable on my usb stick.

Thanks for the help. If I encounter anymore related syncing problems I'll post them here. Should the combination zotero/firefox portable work as flawlessly as zotero in combination with firefox on the desktop? It is sometimes very slow in responding!

Valentijn