Transfers between Zotero Desktops

huckfield

I have two copies of latest version of Zotero Desktop - one of my desktop at university and the other on my desktop at home. While I can easily export My Library to a USB stick and take it to the other desktop, when I import this Library, all divisions into collections and subcollections have disappeared. Is the answer to export and import separate collections - which is very lengthy - or is there a better way or preserve collections within the imported Library? Look forward to hearing from colleagues. Thank you.

bwiernik

You definitely do not want to export/import your library to transfer between computers. This will break all connections with any Word/LibreOffice documents that you have been writing. The best method to keep a Zotero library in sync is to use Zotero's sync feature. Will that work for you?

huckfield

Thanks for this, which will try and see how it works.

bwiernik

Here are details on the different options you have:
https://www.zotero.org/support/sync

huckfield

Just had first opportunity of executing as you suggest. Zotero sync works, except that downloaded library from Zotero sync now duplicates existing library on second machine. I now have double my original library items. While manually I can go through library and remove duplicates, this is a long haul. Is there any way I can prevent duplications, since I thought that this shouldn't happen with a sync?

bwiernik

No it shouldn’t. Had you previously exported/imported all of your items? If so, Zotero regards those as two separate items. Sort your library by date added and delete the extra copy of your library.

huckfield

Thanks for getting back. Before syncing from my first machine, I tried deleting the existing library on my second machine, but there was no menu option to do this. When you suggest "sort your library by date added", where is the menu option for this? Look forward to hearing.

bwiernik

In the upper right corner of the center pane, there is a button for viewing additional columns, including Date Added.

huckfield

Thanks for getting back. OK. So you mean simply delete items which were not added today?

bwiernik

No, what I mean is that you have a bunch of duplicates that are likely when you exported/imported the entire library. Sort by Date Added, then scroll to the day when you imported the library. Select all of the items added at that date/time and delete them. An alternative would be to open the Duplicate Items view in the left pane and merge all the duplicates (though this will retain any duplicate PDFs if any).

huckfield

Thanks. That's good.

huckfield

bwiernik and colleagues. I now work frequently using Zotero library transfers between two desktops, using Zotero sync for Chrome.

But I'm still having trouble. Though each desktop is kept up to date using this sync, this doesn't appear to transfer collections and subcollections. Though I can try to re attach records to a collection manually, this takes a long time.

Any suggestions? Look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.

Gurdas_Sandhu

Collections and sub-collections should sync, and if they are not, then something is broken. Are you seeing all your collections and sub-collections in the online library (after you login at Zotero.com)? Try creating a new collection and a new sub-collection, then sync, then check if they appear in the online library. Do this from both computers - that is create a unique collection and sub-collection on each and see if they appear online.

bwiernik

Start here and follow the instructions carefully.
https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/changes_not_syncing

Changes to collections should obviously sync.

huckfield

Thanks, Gurdas and bwiernik. Will try your suggestions.