Background sync on system startup?

bert.lloyd.89

Is it possible to have Zotero quietly sync in the background at startup, or better yet, a minute or two after startup to ensure that the computer's internet connection has been established?

Thanks,
BL

PS - apologies if this has already been covered, I searched the Syncing forum for "background" and "startup" and did not find this question.

adamsmith

If you set Zotero to run as a startup application and have it set to auto-sync, that would happen. Or what I'm I misunderstanding?

bert.lloyd.89

Thanks, that sounds like it would work - is this an option within Zotero? Or something I would have to do outside the program?

BL

PS - I probably should have mentioned: Zotero Standalone 4.0.23 on W7 Pro 64.

adamsmith

It's a Windows setting:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/run-program-automatically-windows-starts

(obviously any other OS can do this too, though instructions will vary).

Edit: "Sync automatically" is in the sync tab of the Zotero preferences, it's enabled by default.

bert.lloyd.89

This is working well, except I was hoping that this would happen quietly and in the background.

That is, Zotero launches, syncs, and stays open.

I was hoping for something like the way Dropbox, Onedrive, etc. sync -- nothing launches visibly, no need to close any application afterwards.

Any way to have Zotero open but minimized, and then close after the sync is complete?

Thanks again.

adamsmith

no--quite unlikely to happen, too. For one, it'd require a fairly significant amount of platform specific code to enable minimizing to the system tray (or whatever it's called on the relevant OS).
Then it'd be necessary to write code that allows opening it minimized but doesn't confuse people who want to open it regularly (which is where the Dropbox et al. analogy falls short: those don't actually have an app you'd regularly want to open in full).
I don't see resources going to either. The former at least is an not uncommon request, so that may eventually happen. The latter, I'm just not seeing.

bwiernik

If you're on Windows, you can get Zotero to open minimized at startup without much effort.

Put a shortcut to Zotero in the startup folder (like in the link adamsmith posted). Then, right-click on the shortcut and select Properties. At the bottom of the properties window, there is a Run option, where you can select Minimized. This won't close the program when syncing is done, but it accomplishes most of what you're looking for.

Illustrated directions here:
http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-automatically-start-a-program-minimized-in-windows/

sacloves

As of Sept 2021 there are good instructions to achieve this [in Windows 10, at least] here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/add-an-app-to-run-automatically-at-startup-in-windows-10-150da165-dcd9-7230-517b-cf3c295d89dd