Syncing problems multiple computers

Emma Warren

Hi there,

Having some problems syncing group libraries from my laptop (A) to work computer (B).

A is stopping syncing to show an error message (#1672477921)that a doc is too long to sync. However I removed said item from collection, yet it still keeps stopping the sync.
A is showing 670 items

B has a similar message (#1864058355), yet the specified problem document is nowhere to be found on wither computer.B is sgowing 504 items.

I have been using both computers to add & delete items to this library for a research job & I need to hand it over but can't get all to sync - HELP!

Thanks in advance,
Emma

aurimas

Did you empty your Trash in both My Library and group libraries?

Emma Warren

Yep - on both computers.

adamsmith

did you just remove the item from the collection or did you move it to the trash? Just removing an item from a collection leaves it in "My Library". Look for it there, then move it to trash, empty (Zotero) trash and try again.

Emma Warren

Nope - not in MyLibrary on either computer.

Part of the problem is that when I search for the item that the alert is specifying as problematic, I can't find it on either computer.

Thanks anyway.

adamsmith

that's really unlikely. What's the exact message you're getting?

Emma Warren

On both : 'The Abstract field value 'Tuesday December 6, 1881' is too long to sync to zotero.org.

Search for the excerpt above or copy and paste '[reference code]' into the Zotero search bar. Shorten the field, or delete the item and empty the Zotero trash, and then try syncing again.

So I search and nothing comes up. So then I'm stuck.

aurimas

Make sure you select "Everything" in the search field.

Edit: but before you delete it, take a look at the Library Catalog and URL fields. If this was imported from a webpage, please post the contents of those fields here.

Edit 2: Also, search does not work across libraries/groups, so you have to search in each library/group separately. It also does not search inside Trash, but you said you cleared it, so that should be ok

Emma Warren

Aaah, aurimas - you rock!!

Thanks so much - Edit 2 helped - I was mistaken in thinking it would be searching everything & whilst adding things to other folders did not always have the right folder highlighted when searching.

Thanks so much!!!!!! :)

aurimas

glad it worked, but as for edit 1, was the abstract entered by you or was it automatically imported from a website? If the latter, could you provide some details (e.g. which website, what was the title?) so we can fix it on import?

Emma Warren

I've been collecting newspaper articles from the National Library of Australia database: http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

A couple of the articles I had issues with:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/11525896?searchTerm=summary%20for%20europe%201881&searchLimits=l-title=13|||l-decade=188|||sortby=dateAsc|||l-year=1881

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/11525874?searchTerm=%22Tuesday,%20December%206,%201881%22&searchLimits=sortby=dateAsc

Hope this helps.
Ps LOVING Zotero - it's going to revolutionize my PhD research!

aurimas

Yeah, we were incorrectly including the entire text of the newspaper article in the abstract field. The PDFs on that site are OCR'ed, but are difficult to read, so instead of removing the full text altogether, I moved the full-text contents to a note attachment. That should fix the sync issue for future imports.

Emma Warren

Sorry for the late reply, but thanks so much for chasing this up. The Trove site is heavily used by researchers in Australia, many of whom will appreciate this fix!