pdf syncing issues

mediagal · August 16, 2009

Hey folks--

I'm fairly new to Zotero, and so far I love it! I do seem to be having an issue, however, getting pdf files to show up on both computers I use for Zotero. I use a webdav through my university. It is set up and verified. The Zotero folder on it has received a bunch of stuff from both computers. I am working from the same version of Zotero (the latest...2.0b6) on both computers, which are Windows-based. Both are set to auto-sync and enable file attaching.

My problem is that not all pdf files are available on both computers. Many from the work computer don't show up at home and vice versa. They each claim a different number of indexed pdfs. In addition, a number of pdfs that say they are NOT indexed will show up and open on the "away" computer from original upload (this doesn't seem right to me, but I might be misunderstanding something!). Others get the "Attached file could not be found" message when I try to open them.

I receive no sync error messages. Each computer believes it has uploaded all files successfully as far as I can see.

I have tried to reindex, resynced manually, and reverified my webdav.

Am I missing something? All of my references are syncing fine. It is just the attachments not (all) cooperating.

Thank you so much for this great tool and for all of your help.

slanar · August 21, 2009

I have same problem.
I am running the latest version of Zotero and Firefox 3.0 or higher.
I am trying to share my data on multiple computers. I have tried to redirect the custom data directory to a shared drive in our office, which should in theory allow me to access everything.
However, what happens is that only part of the Zotero data directory gets copied to the new custom location. This includes all the info except for the randomly named files under the "storage" folder.
So, when I start Zotero, I see all my entries, but when I click on a PDF attachment, it says "PDF can't be located".
The strangest thing is if I change back to the default directory, there is no problem finding the pdfs!
I have even made a copy of the Zotero data directory, saved it, and then transfered it to the custom data directory -- and that will work! If I move it manually it's fine, but Zotero doesn't seem to transfer all the items directly.
Many thanks for any help you can give!

dstillman · August 21, 2009

However, what happens is that only part of the Zotero data directory gets copied to the new custom location.

slanar: No files are copied when you changed the data directory. If your database appeared to have transferred, it's because either you copied it yourself or you have Zotero sync (and not file sync) set up.

dstillman · August 21, 2009

mediagal: This shouldn't happen, but you can try Reset File Sync History in the Sync->Reset pane of the Zotero preferences on each computer.

In addition, a number of pdfs that say they are NOT indexed will show up and open on the "away" computer from original upload

The full-text index doesn't currently sync, nor does Zotero automatically trigger indexing on the other computer after a download. So this is expected.

mediagal · August 24, 2009

Thanks for your response, Dan. I have done the "reset file sync history" numerous times on each computer. They always show "downloads: none" and then proceed to spend time uploading the files on each respective computer.

Thanks for clearing up the indexing question. Now if I could just get the two computers on the same pdf page...

mediagal · August 24, 2009

Would it matter that on one computer I've chosen where the zotero folders are stored and on the other it is the default location?

dstillman · August 24, 2009

Would it matter that on one computer I've chosen where the zotero folders are stored and on the other it is the default location?

No.

We'd probably need debug output from both sides to be able to tell you what's going on. On each computer, go to the Advanced pane of the Zotero preferences, enable debug logging, Reset File Sync History, perform a sync, send in the output and post the ID here. Also send in an error report (if possible) with Report Errors under the gear menu.

It'd also be helpful to know the folder names in the 'storage' folder for a few of the files that are missing from one or the other computer. (You'll need to check this on the comptuer where they do exist.)

Alternatively, you could wait for the next beta, which should be out later this week and which will feature an overhaul of the file syncing system.

mediagal · August 25, 2009

Hey Dan--

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. Since I'm just now getting back to both computers, I will probably just wait to see if the next beta fixes things. If not, I'll check in using the debug method.

Thanks for your help!

sdvr · October 4, 2009

I'm having similar problems, though in my case only a few attached .pdfs are syncing. I'll do some more testing tomorrow from my other machine, and perhaps post a new topic if I can reproduce anything consistently.

sdvr · October 7, 2009

Ok, in the interests of trying to get to the bottom of this, I've done some investigating by trying to boil the problem down to its barest essentials:

First, I backed up my libraries from both computers. I then deleted everything - including file attachments, Trash, etc. - from both computers, and manually deleted everything from the storage directory (and ensured that the WebDAV syncing folder was also empty).

This should've given me a relatively clean slate from which to test things out - and it certainly seemed to. On both machines, the library was empty - with nothing in it.

Using my main desktop machine, I then went http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/standard-tube-map.pdf - downloaded the pdf as a test, and created a standard "map" object before dragging the pdf underneath it. This worked fine: the pdf file exists in the Firefox profile directory as expected.

I then synced to Zotero - the attached pdf appeared (compressed/zipped, which I understand is normal), on the WebDAV server.

I then opened the laptop, and synced again. The Map object, and the pdf attachment, appeared on Zotero in the laptop. BUT - when you try and open the pdf by double clicking it, you get the error message:

"The attached file could not be found. It may have been moved or deleted outside of Zotero. [Locate] [Cancel]".

Manually looking in the storage directory, you can see why Zotero can't find it - it's empty.

It seems, therefore, that downloading attachments from the WebDAV server is problematic. This could, in theory, be a problem with the server - but I can connect without any problem using Windows Explorer, and see and download the files from the WebDAV folder. I even unzipped the file, and renamed the extension to .pdf, and there it seems to work fine - no apparent corruption or anything like that.

I've just enabled debug logging, cleared the sync history on the main machine (i.e. source of the file), and synced - then submitted this to Zotero. The Debug ID for this step is D408682902. The folder inside the storage folder on the main machine is "NZTIQR82" (the only folder which exists, as I cleared the library/folder before beginning to work on this problem).

Following that, I've just done the same on the laptop (receiving) computer - and the Debug ID is D1779445554. The storage folder on the laptop is empty.

I hope this information is of use, and helps in solving this problem. I'd greatly appreciate any feedback on this issue from anyone working on it, or indeed affected by it.

Thanks,

Sunil

Specifications: Both computers are using 2.0b7.2, on Firefox 3.5.3. One is WinXP, the other Windows 7 RC1. The XP desktop is part of an AD domain, with limited profile storage space, so the firefox profile location has been moved to the "My Documents" storage space. As Zotero stores its files in this, that means that this is located away from it's "usual" location in C:\Documents and Settings\... - but note that it has NOT been manually moved in the Zotero "advanced" tab.