errors with export/import

jlcaviglia-harris
I am new to zotero and love it. I am currently working on having my university adopt it promoting the sharing of libraries as one of the major advantages, but now that I have been doing this more often I have come across some problems. I have read through the discussions to learn that others have had problems with exporting/importing but have yet to see the problems I have. (I posted this issue on the exporting/importing topic, but have yet to receive a response).

I have recently tried moving libraries between computers and have come across two problems:

First, when I export the library all files are copied with the exception of those with comments or attachments. I have copied the library without notes and attachments, with notes only and with attachments only; each time only the references without these (indicted with a "+" in the library listing) are copied.

Second, each time I import the library to my second computer the fields are duplicated. (I now have 3 versions of each reference). Any way to avoid this? I work with multiple co-authors and would like to share libraries often without risk of duplication - is there way to only copy the different files?
  • Tjowens
    In general, it is better to move your entire Zotero database. The newly released Sync preview makes this even easier. If your using the beta version of 1.5 all you need to do is to use your forum login to sync your collection across multiple machines.

    If you decide to keep manually moving your collection it is a much better idea to move the entire database. I will look into the issue you reported about items with notes and attachments in Zotero's RDF export. I haven't seen any other reports of this issue so I am not entirely sure what is going on there. The issue with duplicates is more complicated and is not likely to change in the near future. Both of these issues are resolved if you simply move your entire database. To follow this method simply copy your entire Zotero folder over to the other machine.

    You might also take a look at some of the portable solutions discussed here.
  • jlcaviglia-harris
    Thanks. It ends up that I had better luck when separating my library into two sections and then importing - but I will also look into moving the entire database with the next move.

    An issue that came up from this is once opening a Word document on the new computer (with imported library) the source links were no longer recognized by zotero. Although the sources were clearly in my library it seemed as if the links were broken. I had to re-enter each cite within the text to create the bibliography. Is this supposed to happen?

    The issues with duplicates will not be solved by copying the entire database. The issues here is that I work with multiple co-authors. We each have our own libraries with some identical but some different sources. If I want to copy (import) only the different sources from a co-author this is problematic. Our libraries are large enough that identifying the different sources is time consuming. I was hoping to import the entire library for simplicity - but end up with all these duplicate sources.
  • Tjowens
    edited July 14, 2008
    Your issue with the word document will also be solved if you start moving a single database back and forth. The word plugin is tied to the specific database you used to create it. In the future there are plans for easier ways to move documents around, but for the time being to use the word plugin you need to have the Zotero database it is associated with.

    Someone is working on some duplicate detection features, which with any luck will be available in the near future.

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