Force Papership sync before migrating to Zotero iOS beta

jessriedel

As has been much discussed, the Papership app for iPad is riddled with bugs and in particular will not sync reliably. After many years wandering in the desert, the heroes at Zotero have finally answered our prayers by releasing an iOS app. (Currently invite-only beta, but you can request an invite on the website.)

I've read many Papership-sync threads on the Zotero forum, but none of them seem to have any consistent insight about what sort of syncing is actually the problem (up? down? just notes?). They also are unclear about whether it's a random intermittent problem versus a permanent problem (e.g., causing PDF annotations to get stuck permanently on one's iPad with no hope of escape). Can anyone summarize? (I know answering this question is not the job of the great devs at Zotero.)

What is my best bet for forcing a final clean sync of Papership with my Zotero database so I can move over to the new Zotero for iOS for good? Just try to sync it daily by pulling down on the list of papers? Restart the app? Restart the iPad? (I'm trying all these things).

dstillman

Not sure I'm understanding this. Are you only using PaperShip and not Zotero? Do you not have all your info in Zotero on the desktop?

jessriedel

Thanks for the reply, and sorry for being unclear.

I had been using Zotero on macOS desktop and Papership on iPad. Some of the PDF annotations I have made locally with Papership on the iPad (and can still see/edit) are failing to sync to my Zotero database (which I can check through Zotero desktop and the web interface).

I want to get a final complete sync between Papership and my Zotero database before uninstalling Papership.

Thank you.

dstillman

OK, just to clarify, that would be about file sync — those annotations are just saved to the PDF, not any database, so if you're not seeing them elsewhere it just means the modified files aren't being uploaded. But I'm afraid that's all I can tell you.