Sync icon still spinning

erichuntington · July 9, 2014

Following the instructions in the documentation, I'm starting a new thread to report that my sync icon has been spinning for many more than two hours with no result. I can successfully sync between my MacBook and the server in just a few moments, and web access to my library shows the correct records. However my desktop computer has not been able to sync at all since I imported a large library of about 10,000 records (but no attached files) several days ago. There may have been a glitch because after importing the library the first time, I noticed several data errors (of my own doing) and had to delete and reimport several times. I am running the standalone version of Zotero (v. 4.0.21.4) on an iMac running 10.9.3.

dstillman · July 9, 2014

Right, so, you have 234,000 items in your personal library on the server.

234K items is a shocking number, and there's no way your current download will finish. But 223K of those items are actually in the trash, so it seems like you reimported quite a few times (and/or have a huge number of child notes and attachments) without emptying the trash after deleting the items.

If you have another computer that's syncing successfully — that is, the computer where you originally added the items and they still exist in the trash — you could delete the items from the trash in, say, 10K-item batches and sync that computer, but even that might be problematic. If you'd like, I can clear your online trash for you, which will probably allow you to sync.

erichuntington · July 9, 2014

Thanks very much for your reply. Yes, I imported those same 10,000 entries numerous times because I was attempting to convert a proprietary FileMaker bibliography database into an importable format and ran into numerous syntax errors that had to keep being corrected. (I used RIS as an intermediary, although perhaps there is a better solution—I couldn't find any easy methods on the forums). Since I am new to Zotero, I didn't consider the function of the trash and neglected to empty it. If you wouldn't mind emptying the trash online for me, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks very much for your help!

erichuntington · July 13, 2014

I waited a couple of days for the online trash to be emptied, but with no response. After going ahead and trying to take care of it myself by emptying the trash on my working computer, I did get a sync error as you predicted. I've submitted a report with error ID 471851720. If you could please empty the online trash or take care of the error in some other way, I would appreciate it. Thanks for your help!

dstillman · July 15, 2014

Sorry for the delay. I'm working on this, but your library is actually so big that it's breaking the normal way that I do this. So I have to fix that first before I can empty your trash.

dstillman · July 15, 2014

All right, give it a try now.

erichuntington · July 16, 2014

Thanks very much for your continued efforts! The syncing now does work to my desktop computer (which had not been syncing before), but it has stopped working for my notebook (which had been working before). I have tried emptying the trash locally on my notebook (which had the 200,000 items), thinking that this may reduce the number of things that would have to sync (since both trashes should now be empty and the other files identical), but it still runs into an error. I've submitted a report with ID#: 2112406829. Should I just wipe the local files and restore everything from the server? I appreciate any assistance you can provide.

dstillman · July 16, 2014

Can you restart Zotero and provide a Debug ID for a sync attempt that's failing?

erichuntington · July 16, 2014

Even though I restarted Zotero several times before, this time everything seems to be working. I now see synced libraries across my notebook, desktop, and the server/web-access. So, I assume you will not need to see the Debug ID, but if you would like to check it, please let me know. Thank you very much for your help!!