Using Dropbox and want to move Zotero Data to it

Currently my Zotero data directory is resident in my home desktop, located at:
C:\Users\DOYLE\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\yxry0x07.default\zotero

This works fine at home but does it permit me to work on my Zotero citations etc. from my office computer?
Does the Zotero data from my home PC sync with the Zotero Library in other words?
Does it make any sense to try to copy of move my Zotero directory to the Dropbox directory?
Thanks
  • This works fine at home but does it permit me to work on my Zotero citations etc. from my office computer?
    Does the Zotero data from my home PC sync with the Zotero Library in other words?
    if you have syncing enabled in Zotero then yes, this will sync to all computers you use Zotero on - the location of the folder doesn't matter, you can set it to a custom location (in the advanced tab of the Zotero preferences), it doesn't matter much either way.
    Does it make any sense to try to copy of move my Zotero directory to the Dropbox directory?
    don't do that - Dropbox's syncing mechanism isn't intended to work with databases like Zotero and you have a very good chance of permanently damaging your database by placing it into dropbox (and similar services).
    If you need attached files to sync and don't want to rely on Zotero's file storage, you can either find a WebDAV service (usually cheaper than Zotero, but with slightly reduced functionality) or you can find a way to sync only your zotero/storage folder using dropbox et al (i.e. the folder that holds the attachments, but not the folder that has the zotero.sqlite - the only way to do this with dropbox are symlinks afaik.
  • Incidentally, wouldn't it be useful if Zotero supported setting the location of the storage folder separately from the folder containing database and translators etc.? I see it happening very often that users move everything wholesale into Dropbox, unaware of the dangers of having the sql db in Dropbox, when all they want is just sync the attachments folder using Dropbox. If you could tell Zotero to look for the attachments in folder X all would be well.
  • I think that the main reason is that Zotero already offers two different cloud-based synchonization solutions: Zotero file storage and WebDAV. Dropbox is inferior to WebDAV, and supporting it "officially" would probably lead to increasing number of support requests because files can become out of sync with Zotero server.

    I have written about dropbox here, check toward the end of the article

    http://zotpad.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/103784-which-file-storage-solution-should-i-use-
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