Sync doesn't "converge"

There's no error number for this, because I don't get an error from Zotero, and sync's complete happily.

However if I repeat the sync operation - without making any changes in the interim - it downloads the same number of files (8) over and over (I'd guess they're the same files, but haven't looked at debug output to check). (BTW I've turned off automatic sync).

Earlier I synchronised a fairly large number of new items - about 150 - with associated PDF's) and I got a lot of Conflict Resolution dialogs in which the only differences in the Local and Remote copies was in the File Accessed and/or File Modified times.

In most every case it seemed the remote File Modified time was one hour ahead of the remote one - and also one hour ahead of the remote/local File Accessed time.

Now my WebDAV server is in a different time zone - one hour ahead of my own. If I look at the files on the WebDAV server through the service's Web interface, I can see that File Modified times are one hour ahead (e.g. for the file "lastsync").

Could this be the cause? Does Zotero assume client and server are in the same timezone? Do I need to reset my clocks here?
  • Time zone shouldn't matter, but the one-hour-off problem is one we've seen before (though only on Windows/Linux, I think).

    It may not actually be downloading the files, but rather just checking for the same eight missing files. When working properly it shouldn't try again unless you've uploaded files from another computer, though.

    Could you generate debug output for the sync attempt from the Advanced pane of the Zotero prefs, submit it to the server, and post the Debug ID here? Thanks.
  • I should have said this was on Win XP/SP3, FF 3.5.3, Z 2.0b7.2

    I shut down the two machines, restarted, and started FF.
    I did two successive "manual" sync's about 5 mins apart from the laptop - Debug ID is D1274112506. This seems to download 3 files each time.

    Then I did the same from the desktop - Debug ID is D186719636. This machine is dowloading 8 files, but from a casual inspection of the debug log they don't seem to be the same set of files.

    BTW, just to be clear, I'm not getting any Conflict Resolution dialogs on either machine now. That only happened earlier when there were a lot of changes.
  • I am seeing the one-hour off problem as well. I am using one machine with Win XP, and one with Windows 7 pro, and I am using Zotero 2.0.b7.4, with mydrive.ch for WebDAV.

    I noticed the problem on my Windows 7 machine when I was having trouble getting Zotero to recognize that the server copy of a pdf file had been updated (the modification date was about 16 hours later than the local version, so it doesn't seem like these problems are connected). I did a Reset File Sync History, and Zotero came up with abut 160 conflict dialogs in which, apart from the one file I was actually trying to update, the only difference between the local and server versions of the files was a one hour difference in the last modified dates, with the local machine version always being one hour later. I also noticed that many of the server versions of the files, according to the conlict dialogs, had last accessed dates that were exactly two hours different from their modified dates. I chose the remote version in each of the conflict dialogs.

    I can't provide any helpful debug output because when I performed a repeat reset and file sync on the same Windows 7 machine, the sync went through quickly there were no conflicts.
  • It might be unrelated, but I just observed the following sync behavior on an install of zotero on a new PC.

    1. Click sync button - existing library copied to local machine
    2. Spot typo in entry for old web page and correct it.
    3. Click sync button - probably less than a minute after (1)
    4. Zotero uploads 13 files to server (slow connection, so takes a minute or so)

    After this, resync'd system time (just in case) but unable to reproduce unexpected file
    upload. Syncs completing quickly as expected

    XP SP3 Zotero 2.0zb4 Firefox 3.5.4
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