Upgrade StorageZotero and Dropbox - a potential solution
Hi all,
I've been using Zotero for two years now and have a large investment in it, as all my academic collections are stored there. I'm paranoid that they might somehow be lost or corrupted.
I initially kept my Zotero data directory in my Dropbox directory, but noted that this led to some syncing conflicts, as others have also found. (The Zotero documentation recommends against doing this.)
I put forward a simple(?) solution for using Zotero while maintaining a Dropbox cloud backup.
(1) Let Zotero work in its own non-Dropbox directory on each PC you use. I use it on a home and work PC.
(2) Use a scheduled directory syncing program to mirror the Zotero working directory to a directory within Dropbox. (I use DirSyncPro which works well.) Importantly, this must be a one-way mirror: The Zotero working directory must not be altered at all. The Dropbox directory is merely a backup.
(3) Importantly, each PC should have it's OWN Zotero backup folder in Dropbox. Reason: If you work on Zotero on one of the PC's (at home for example) while the other PC is still running (at work), then you get a situation where the Zotero working directories on each PC are out-of-sync. Not a problem for Zotero alone, which would normally update the work PC when you fire up Zotero at work the next day. But if your PCs share a common Zotero backup directory within Dropbox, and each PC is running a scheduled directory syncing program every few minutes, then each PC syncs the different Zotero working directories to the common Dropbox backup directory, alternating between the old (work) version and the new (home) version. The result is that Dropbox works continuously to try keep up as the shared directory is tugged between old and new versions. It can eat a LOT of bandwidth! So, keep two Zotero backup directories in Dropbox: one for the work PC, one for the home PC. (Naturally, this extends to more than two PC's as well.)
While this sounds like a pain in the ass, I feel reassured that my data is safe within Zotero, and doubly safe that it is automatically backup up in Dropbox without affecting Zotero at all.
Hope this is useful to others.
I've been using Zotero for two years now and have a large investment in it, as all my academic collections are stored there. I'm paranoid that they might somehow be lost or corrupted.
I initially kept my Zotero data directory in my Dropbox directory, but noted that this led to some syncing conflicts, as others have also found. (The Zotero documentation recommends against doing this.)
I put forward a simple(?) solution for using Zotero while maintaining a Dropbox cloud backup.
(1) Let Zotero work in its own non-Dropbox directory on each PC you use. I use it on a home and work PC.
(2) Use a scheduled directory syncing program to mirror the Zotero working directory to a directory within Dropbox. (I use DirSyncPro which works well.) Importantly, this must be a one-way mirror: The Zotero working directory must not be altered at all. The Dropbox directory is merely a backup.
(3) Importantly, each PC should have it's OWN Zotero backup folder in Dropbox. Reason: If you work on Zotero on one of the PC's (at home for example) while the other PC is still running (at work), then you get a situation where the Zotero working directories on each PC are out-of-sync. Not a problem for Zotero alone, which would normally update the work PC when you fire up Zotero at work the next day. But if your PCs share a common Zotero backup directory within Dropbox, and each PC is running a scheduled directory syncing program every few minutes, then each PC syncs the different Zotero working directories to the common Dropbox backup directory, alternating between the old (work) version and the new (home) version. The result is that Dropbox works continuously to try keep up as the shared directory is tugged between old and new versions. It can eat a LOT of bandwidth! So, keep two Zotero backup directories in Dropbox: one for the work PC, one for the home PC. (Naturally, this extends to more than two PC's as well.)
While this sounds like a pain in the ass, I feel reassured that my data is safe within Zotero, and doubly safe that it is automatically backup up in Dropbox without affecting Zotero at all.
Hope this is useful to others.
I too am looking into this issue. Currently I have a single machine using Zotero stand alone with a data directory in Dropbox. This seems to work well enough for the moment.
The problem comes when I try to set another machine up sharing the Zotero library. I originally thought I could set the Zotero data directory on the new machine to the shared Dropbox folder but after reading this post I now realise that is not a good idea.
I would adopt the method you described above but are you not essentially just running two independent libraries of Zotero? Even if Zotero on both machines uses the Zotero account sync option how are your attachments synced? Are does this method require a paid for Zotero account with additional storage?
Thanks for posting!
Cheers,
See https://www.zotero.org/support/sync#alternative_syncing_solutions for possible ways of setting up Zotero to use Dropbox without issues. And http://zotpad.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/103395-what-is-a-symbolic-link-and-why-should-i-use-one-w for some more detailed instructions on how to set up the symbolic link option.