How to use zotero with multiple users at the same time

Tieroekologie

Hello,

what needs to be done to be able to use zotero with more than one person at the same time? At the moment it is not possible and i cant find anything on the webpage where i can possibly get an upgrade. Can someone help and guide me to it?

Kind regards

Marie Schielke

adamsmith

Could you say what you mean by "use zotero with more than one person at the same time"? What exactly are you trying to do? The standard way to collaborate using Zotero, including in real time, is to use multiple accounts and Zotero groups: https://www.zotero.org/support/groups

Tieroekologie

Hi adam,

i mean that only one person is able to work with or in zotero. If someone else tries to open zotero, it says that it is already used by someone else. Right now its not possible to use it with more than one person. does that make sense? how can i change that?

adamsmith

You can't work with multiple people on the same local database. That's the nature of (most) database files and can't be changed. That's why sync and groups exist for collaboration.

Thorbie

"You can't work with multiple people on the same local database. " Do you mean, multiple folks cannot sign in to the same Z-account at the same time from different computers?

dstillman

@Thorbie: No, that's totally fine — that's the point of syncing, as adamsmith says. It sounds like @Tieroekologie has the Zotero data directory on a network server of some sort and is trying to have multiple people with access to the server use it simultaneously, which is very much not supported (and would corrupt the database if Zotero didn't block it).

Tieroekologie

Hi, I read through the advices given regarding groups and synchonization but i cannot work it out to be honest.
We use Zotero as our database regarding references for our reports. It happens quite often that one person is working with zotero and during that time it is not possible for others to add liturature or references. A windwo appears, saying that its been used already. The directory is located on the server. So as I understand adamsmith and dstillmann accessing zotero from different computers at the same time is not possible. But if we use groups it would be possiple.

dstillman

So as I understand adamsmith and dstillmann accessing zotero from different computers at the same time is not possible. But if we use groups it would be possiple.

Yes. Again, you can't have your Zotero data directory on a network share that multiple people access.