Also, adding syncing to your current setup would mean that you have an additional, near real-time backup on top of whatever current backup regime you are employing. This might be particularly relevant in your situation, which - as adamsmith points out - is particularly risk prone (particularly when used together with Offline Files, which sometimes lags substantially with syncing changes back).

Edit: If you allow me to add a plug here - since you point out that you don't intend to be using zotero sync for your attachment sync I assume that the reason for that might be that you have a specific concern with syncing to the filespace at zotero.org. If this is the case and you are otherwise interested in attachment storage (if only for backup purposes, or to enable using sync to keep your laptop and desktop synced) you could use my free and very easy to install and use phpZoteroWebDAV script that enables the use of any php enabled webserver you might have access to (or feel sufficiently inclined to set up) to use as a storage sync destination as well as library and attachment viewer (e.g. for when you are away from both computers).

Setting up sync would not at all change the way you use zotero locally. Zotero will continue to store local copies of attachments in the same way as it has always been doing it and it will continue to use a local sqlite database to store your library.

The only thing that sync does is to upload any changes that you make to these local (or networked in your case) copies to the cloud and then download them on any computers that are not in sync (if you don't change your setup this would never happen since both computers access the same copy, unless you use a third party app to add items to your online library).

So yes, you can still access your files the same as you do now through your FF extension, you can continue to view or edit pdfs (or any attachment, really) with external programs.


P.S. on a side note, I have just tested one of the smartphone apps (BibUp) for scanning barcodes and it turns out that you do not have to use sync to use it.

@krueschan: on BibUp, I've got an Android, so I'd be looking at the other app (Scanner for Zotero), and it appears to add to one's library on zotero's servers- I haven't been able to find any documentation that suggests the possibility of doing otherwise, at least.

At this point, I'm strongly leaning towards just setting up Zotero storage. My system has worked fine for me so far, but I've only been using my two computers. If I'm going to set up at the very least the data sync, and start accessing the library with my phone, then I'm adding more variables to the mix- and I'm likely on borrowed time at this point as it is, given the probability of something going wrong with the way I'm set up over my network. Given the amount of time and energy this silly PhD has taken so far, to have a ton of work become inaccessible via a corrupted database, all for the savings of $5 a month... from that perspective it seems a little ridiculous :-)

So my next questions become: Are all files that are stored in the zotero library (i.e. not linked) synced via file sync (i.e. regardless of type, pdf, docx, ppt, audio, etc.)? Are linked files referenced somehow, even if they are not accessible (so you could see you had a copy of a particular item, even if it was too large to store itself in zotero- e.g. an encrypted ebook)? Lastly, does the sync process work best if you do it all at once- data & files together- or would it be best to do the data sync first to make sure there were no issues, then set up file sync? And I'm assuming that the best procedure is to set up everything on my desktop, get sync working, then set up my laptop to sync from an empty zotero library starting point (to avoid duplicates)?

Thanks again for all your help!

adamsmith wrote:

actually, no. If your laptop has a copy of your database, Zotero will recognize the items as the same and not duplicate them. So you'll save yourself some time if you start your Laptop with a copy of your database and attachments.

Let me just make absolutely clear that this "copy of database and attachments" would have to be a "real" local copy, as opposed to the remote network copy (made sort of local via Offline Files) you are currently using. Since you are currently using Offline files, this can be easily achieved by copying from your network path to another location on your laptop hard drive. Once sync is set up you can then reclaim the space taken up by your zotero database Offline Files storage on your laptop HDD.

MiscBec wrote:

Are linked files referenced somehow, even if they are not accessible (so you could see you had a copy of a particular item, even if it was too large to store itself in zotero- e.g. an encrypted ebook)?

I am pretty certain that they would - behind the scenes the zotero library creates an additional dedicated library item for each attachment which is then linked to its parent item by being dedicated as a child item of that parent. This child (attachment) library item is separate from the actual stored copy of the attachment file even though they are linked by sharing the same itemKey (the itemkey of the child item is the folder name of the attachment file in the storage folder) and since this child library item gets synced independent of what happens to the actual attachment file reference to it should be preserved. Anyway, I am getting carried away with details....
What I did want to make sure you understand is this: the attachment sync is not selective. I.e. you cannot exclude individual items from the sync, for example on the account that they are large ebook files. It's just sync or don't sync. (although I think it should be possible to move the items you don't want to be synced to a group library as you can specify different sync settings for group libraries, but that comes with its own set of issues)

The most important piece of information in this thread, however, warrants repeating:
adamsmith wrote:

For 95%+ of all users, sync just works.

You can stop the file sync. Zotero should resume right where it left off.

Well, I set up the storage and synced both my desktop and laptop without issue! There were about a dozen conflicts with the first sync (only a few of which I could actually see any reason for), but otherwise, it all worked perfectly :-) Thanks to everyone for all the advice and support- I'm on to experiment with the apps!