import only newer items

sagearbor

I would like to be able to import a almost duplicate zotero library and only have new or newer files imported.
I have long ago surpassed the data range for free zotero cloud storage. A recurring problem I have is working at home (laptop) and at work (desktop) in zotero and keeping both up to date. Usually what I do is just forward links from home at night and then import everything into zotero the next day at work (which chews up a lot of my 7-5 work time). The only workaround I can think of is to be able to add things at night on my laptop and then upload that to my desktop once in a while ... but in the mean time I would have added a lot of things on only my desktop so I would want to just import the new or newer items in the laptop import. Some obvious downsides : copying a lot of data for just the differential (Im planning on using DVD-RW), deleted items would not be corrected in other version. Does anyone have any better solutions (other than pay for cloud storage forever)???

aurimas

You could sort by Date Added and only export/import items after a certain date, but that is not a good way to keep your computers in sync, because it would be a huge mess if you ever tried to sync the computers again and/or tried using Word with both computers on a single document.

Read through http://www.zotero.org/support/sync It offers a couple alternatives to using zotero.org storage. Though obviously Zotero would appreciate you investing in storage on zotero.org. It would also make life easier if you want to use groups or access your library from mobile devices.

sagearbor

another option Im investigating is using a program called freeFileSync which allows you to set up various rules for syncing. Then when I bring in the laptop and connect it to the network I can click a button (or automatically at a scheduled time) have the syncing take place. Im using this program for non zotero things and it works well. Ill update this thread if I go that route and let everyone know how it goes.

adamsmith

just make sure you're not using anything else to sync the zotero database - finding an alternative file sync solution is fine, but the moment you let another tool do anything with zotero.sqlite you're setting yourself up for trouble.

sagearbor

I found this link from zotero which sounded like you should replace
'zotero.sqlite'. I dont see a way around that too, since as I understand it that has the bib info. Im going to follow the instructions on this link and copy over everything under my "zotero" directory. The big player there is my "storage" folder. The following files are also about 125MB: zotero.sqlite , zotero.sqlite.1.bak , zotero.sqlite.76.bak , zotero.sqlite.bak

http://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data

Ill also move my entire zotero app and folders on my laptop to an identical root path. I didnt see how to do this through the standalone, so will manually do it and expect my shortcuts to start it to break but hope nothing else does (not that worried bc worst case scenario I uninstall and reinstall in desired location and then copy this data into it that Im doing anyway).