Standalone has a different library than my regular Zotero

rpetunia

The standalone on my laptop will not sync. When I tried to reset local data, I got this message
[Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED) [nsIFile.remove]" nsresult: "0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/zotero.js :: _initFull :: line 512" data: no]

dstillman

1) This error indicates a problem with file permissions in your Zotero data directory (or potentially an issue with security software, though that's somewhat less likely for this particular error). You'll need to fix those.

2) I'm not sure what you mean by "regular Zotero" here. Do you mean your Zotero for Firefox library on the same computer, or do you just mean that this one is out of date because it hasn't synced?

dstillman

And in any case, it's unlikely that you should be using Restore from Zotero Server, unless you actually have someone else's library from a previous installation. So you'll need to explain exactly what the issue is before we can help.

rpetunia

By regular Zotero library, I mean the library that is online at the Zotero website. That one is the correct update. I want that library on my Zotero Standalone on my laptop, but it won't snyc to it. I found my data directory on the laptop, and it points me to a folder, but I don't know what steps to take next.

For some reason (this is a work computer, and sometimes acts oddly), I can't install Zotero for Firefox. So I installed Zotero Standalone as a substitute, and I think in trying to install two kinds of Zotero, I messed it up. Just not sure how to fix it.

dstillman

So you have an empty Zotero on this computer, correct?

If so, there's no need to use the reset options, and you shouldn't — you just need to sync normally.

For the error above — which I would think would also manifest itself as your not being able to make any changes to Zotero — you'll need to check the permissions in the data directory to make sure your current user account can read and write all files. How you do that depends on your OS, and we can't really help you with that. Zotero just needs to be able to write to its own files. If you don't have any Zotero data on this computer, simply closing Zotero and then deleting the entire data directory (the lowercase 'zotero' folder that it places you in from the preferences) and letting Zotero recreate one should also work (unless the permissions problem is higher up, or unless this is caused by security software).