Can I use multi-users from on PC?

mfatehy
What if I sign in with different users on my PC... Shall I sync from zero every time and clear all previous data? If I wanna sync today deom account called : "mfatehy1"
clicking sync ... will it delete all data on HDD from "mfatehy" account?
i..e is their a capability of multiuser on the same PC without affecting offline data ?
  • fbennett
    One approach might be to use multiple profiles:

    http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles

    There might be better answers.
  • adamsmith
    It depends who these accounts are for - if they're all for the same person, but for different purposes, do what fbennett suggests.
    If they're for multiple people, use separate Windows accounts.

    As for your question - if you don't use different accounts, your data from different accounts will get mixed together. Don't do that.
  • mfatehy
    Thanks for help >>
    I hope Zotero manages this issue in the future without needing such work around

    till now this will be useful
  • mronkko
    If you want this feature, you should clearly explain the use case and why
    1) Using different Windows accounts is not an option
    2) You need to have two accounts for the same person

    (I know that developers can use many accounts, but for that the different FF profiles is an adequate solution.)
  • mfatehy
    the use case is
    I m working on different thesis for friends using their OWN lib
    they give me the Password and I uses their lib and update it
    then send them the word file .
    So all what they need is to log in from thier PC and sync
  • mronkko
    If you have two people working on the same document, you should use a group library. Is there a particular reason why that is not an option?
  • adamsmith
    (generally, Zotero won't duplicate functionality that already exists twice - in the form of user accounts and Firefox profiles - on every computer. I believe Dan mentioned that a Kiosk mode with some type of log-out and wipe may happen in the future, but that'd be a very inefficient way of handling your situation.)
  • mfatehy
    groups are not an option as I use this for different workgroups
    I am involved in two or three different projects and each of them uses Zotero from different account . Groups and sharing is not an option as we also need to co-work on the word doc, meaning we need the citation identifier in the document to be one allover the work process
  • aurimas
    groups are not an option as I use this for different workgroups
    I am involved in two or three different projects and each of them uses Zotero from different account .
    Groups and sharing is not an option as we also need to co-work on the word doc, meaning we need the citation identifier in the document to be one allover the work process
    I don't understand why groups are not an option for either of those cases. These two cases are exactly why groups were designed. Though perhaps the documentation does not make that very clear.

    For problem #1:

    You (or whoever wants to manage the project) can create as many groups as they want. You can make the groups private, public, or closed membership (http://www.zotero.org/support/groups) depending on what kind of sharing you want. You can also join as many groups as you want.

    For problem #2:

    When you join the group and use references from the group library in your Word document, those references are the same for everyone in the group.

    We'll have to work on the documentation (unless I missed a page somewhere)
  • mfatehy
    OK I used firefox profiles as a solution .. still testing but it looks useful . Still preferring that LOCAL Zotero has the option of "profiles" instead of making a new FF profile for each zotero user with the need to inherit all firefox settings as passwords, bookmarks, forms, etc

    any way, it works! thanks for all your support , it made my work faster
  • algeriemunozlarroa
    Hi there,

    I have a question. I'm new using Zotero so I'm stuck. I have all my library with all my collections and items in my account. But when I try to sync on a mozilla browser from another PC(writing my username and password in the preferences)it doesn't sync the items. What should I do?

    Thanks
  • adamsmith
    http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/changes_not_syncing
    for anything more, please start a new thread, as this one deals with a different issue (multiple users on one computer, not one user on multiple computers as in your case).
  • algeriemunozlarroa
    Hi there,

    Thanks a lot for the link. It helped a bit. All my items are in my library in my account zotero.org, and if I add more items on my browser they get automatically sync in zotero.org. However, I can't have access to that library from my browser if I sync.

    So there is flow of data from my browser to my zotero.org account but not the other way around. Also everytime that I add a new item to my existing collections on the browser they sync automatically deleting the collections on my zotero.org account. For the information you sent it seams that my computer is getting trouble to sync.

    The reason I used this thread is because all the problem originated when multiple users tried to use the same computer. As I am on holidays and tried to use my mother's computer where she already had a zotero account and a zotero installed in her browser. When I changed to my password in the preferences, zotero browser mixed my collections with my mum's. And got all confused.

    Did I do something wrong or it is my mums computer cuasing the problem?

    Thanks a lot,
    Argelia
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