Synchronisation speed with webdav server over ADSL improvable?

franz47
I want to have the latest versions of my zotero files available on 2 locations and sometimes laptops. Internet via ADSL. At the moment I have my zotero related data in a directory on my Windows PC. These files are automatically synced upon detected changes with a sync client to my personal webdav server on the internet. Syncing works but after some months using zotero my zotero.sqlite has become large. So after every very little change of my zotero data the whole file is uploaded to my webdav server via ADSL. The last upload took 27 min, which is very impractical when I just have made a simple change and want to shut down the machine and leave.

Is there any way to speed up the process of syncing except a higher upload speed or carrying the data with me on a harddisk drive from location A to location B and update there manually?
  • adamsmith
    this sounds wrong. Why aren't you syncing your data with Zotero? You should only be using webDAV for file sync.
  • franz47
    Basically I do not use Zotero's server because I try to keep my data under my own control as much as possible.

    Second I expect to run out of space when using Zotero sometimes in the future. I have 1 TB Cloud space and thought I then ideally take care of everything on it.

    When I would use Zotero's own server, would the syncing work faster? Is just entering the Zotero access data enough to move the database to the Zotero server?
  • adamsmith
    you can't run out on Zotero _data_ -- it's unlimited. You can keep using your webDAV for files.
    The sync is much smarter than syncing the entire database, so yes, it's going to be much faster (and a lot safer wrt data integrity. What you're doing now is actually quite risky. Just syncing an sqlite as a file is not a great idea and can easily corrupt it since you're not making sure it's properly locked, not simultaneously accessed etc.)

    So you'd put in the Zotero login data in the sync pane, and the file sync to webDAV and insert your login for that there.
  • franz47
    Thank You for the hint on this item.

    At the moment these files and dirs in the zotero dir are synced by my webdav sync client:

    dir locate
    dir storage
    dir styles
    dir translators
    files pdfinfo*.* 4 pieces
    files zotero.sqlite* 4 pieces

    How should I best move from syncing all with my webdav client to syncing my data with the Zotero server? Which dirs/files should I exempt from syncing after activating syncing of data with the Zotero server? Apparently some are then synced via the Zotero server instead of my webdav server.

    BTW - will I be able to use Zotero data in my Firefox also offline after a sync has been done?
  • adamsmith
    just sync dir storage, don't sync anything else -- I'd actually recommend to don't sync anything directly but have Zotero deal with it (it has built in support for 3rd party webDAVs, so the files would still be on your webDAV, but Zotero interacts with the webDAV) but if you prefer to just sync that directory, it'll work, too.

    And yes, of course you'll still be able to work offline.
  • franz47
    Being in location B now on a windows PC I think I have configured Zotero as suggested. Data synchronisation automatically with the Zotero server and file synchronisation with my own WEBDAV server. When testing with creating new directories and importing new data the green sync symbos rotates a while and seems to do what I expect. I had no chance yet wheter these changes are synced to my Windows PC in location A.

    I had a look at file and dir timestamps in my PC and WEBDAV-server. There I could not find any time stamps which would fit to the times when I did the changes in my data in Firefox. I tried to find an explanation or flow sheet in the documentation explaining which dirs/files contain which information and how they are changed when making changes to the Zotero entries in Firefox and how files are handled in the sync process. I expected to gain some understanding which files I may have unnecessarily still on my PC/WEBDAV and how to configure the sync for the files.

    Is there any link to an explanation how Zotero works?
  • adamsmith
    Only thing I'm aware of is this:
    https://www.zotero.org/support/sync
Sign In or Register to comment.