Which WEBDAV service for Zotero?

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  • I'm considering buying storage space from Adrive.
    Does anyone here have experience using zotero with a non-free Adrive account?
    Does the webDAV work without any problems?
  • Hi all,

    although I've been very happy with Mydrive.ch for keeping my collection safe, I have now found out that they have a 1000 files per folder limit. What is strange is that I have 1952! Anyone knows whether this has been implemented recently, and are there alternatives?

    Cheers
  • I have been using 4shared.com for two years now and it works fine
  • CloudMe (http://www.cloudme.com/en) perfectly works for me with a 1500+ item collection of 2,7GB (they offer 3GB for free). They have not got the unpleasant file limit of 1000 items per directory like most other (free) WebDAV storage services. Only drawback: no secured connection to the server.
  • Is anyone currently using WebDav for their Zotero libary with 5 GB or more? Recommendations for good free storage? I've been trying a bunch but none fully sync (box.com, idrivesync.com, 4sync.com, 4shared.com). Thanks for any advice. The all have large storage amounts for free (idrivesync.com is 10 GB!) but WebDav doesn't support the kind of file uploads that Zotero does.
  • I don't sync files, but I have heard consistently good things about cloudme. I know aurimas uses box.net and is very happy with it.
    Neither of them are free for >5GB, but at some point you likely get what you pay for.
  • Thanks. Box.com has discontinued its Dav support. I've tried it but get the same kind of "500 errors" that I get with other services. Haven't tried couldme yet so thanks for the tip.
  • box.net is working fine for me. use https://www.box.com/dav/ for url
  • There is an incomplete list of services available here:

    http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/webdav_services

    Is there an official announcement by box.com that they do not do WebDAV anymore?
  • I've been using 4shared for a couple of years now - having run out of space at cloud.me - with no problems at all. Since 4shared gives 15GB, I assume you must be hitting the 2GB file size limit that's mentioned in the table above? I did have some large PDF e-books (though nothing like 2GB) which I instead linked to from Zotero because syncing them was a nuisance over my home broadband. I keep the PDF's in a Dropbox folder, so it's still backed up and synced. In addition I found Nook Study was a better interface for reading and annotating these than viewing PDF's in the browser or Acrobat Reader - especially since I find I read books in a different way than I do papers, keeping them open for longer duration and making more extensive notes.
  • Hello!

    I recently re-set up my Zotero WebDAV, and opened a 4Shared.com account (after seeing alandsloane's post above,) and for some reason ran into an issue wherein 4Shared wouldn't allow more than 5,000 files in a folder. I e-mailed them, but have yet to hear back. Seeing as though 5,000 files to a folder, if that is indeed a limitation, would limit me to only 2,500 Zotero files (1.zip+1.prop/Zotero citation with a saved document), that wouldn't be a useful situation for my large library.

    I returned to trying to set up my WebDAV using box.com after having failed several other times. What I discovered however, is that unlike other services (such as 4Shared), which use an https://webdav.ServiceProvider.com/dav/ address string, Box.com's WebDAV is accessible using: https://dav.box.com/dav and now I have my Zotero syncing to Box.com's WebDAV. According to the Box.com forums, they have indeed "discontinued" WebDAV service, but WebDAV is still working.

    So, for anyone trying to take advantage of one of those free Box.com 50GB cloud storage accounts, set up your WebDAV using https://dav.box.com/dav and see if that works!
  • I did try https://box.com/dav/zotero and it was not working for me; but folks on their forum were saying that https://dav.box.com/dav/ was working, and thus far, it is for me too.

    But I'll try it again. I tried out the box.com/dav/zotero the first time around when I was trying to set up WebDAV syncing (like, a year ago.)
  • The URL above says "www.box.com"

    I'll make a note of the dav.box.com address though.
  • Re 4shared and ryandserias's comment above, I see that they've just "truncated" my zotero collection to 5K files! This must be a pretty recent restriction, as I had 7.5K files (or some 4K Zotero items) a couple of days ago.

    Their FAQ implies no such restriction:
    "You may upload as many files as you like, but they must fit within your virtual drive space. The space limit is 15 GB per account."
    http://www.4shared.com/faq.jsp#q9

    I guess another move is in prospect ;-(
  • The dav.box.com address is a different service than www.box.com. I recommend keeping the www.box.com in the documentation.

    The dav.box.com is a SabreDAV server and www.box.com is nginx server. The nginx should be much more efficient because it is not running interpreted php code. If you connect to the dav.box.com using Safari, the response is not what you would expect to receive form a WebDAV server.
  • Hi mronkko-

    I tested your suggestion: both looking at the https://dav.box.com/dav URL and the https://www.box.com/dav, and see what you mean re: the results coming back on the former not looking like a traditional WebDAV, but I was able to access my /zotero folder, and was able to see all of my .prop and .zip files. When I tried the latter (www.box.com/dav) I was able to see a more traditional WebDAV, but when I clicked on the /zotero folder, I was presented with a box.com error screen.

    I further tested out re-directing Zotero to https://www.box.com/dav and after having done so, was presented with error messages when I tested the server. I went back to using the https://dav.box.com/dav URL, and Zotero was able to successfully establish a connection. So I don't really know what's up.

    Being somewhat wet behind the ears when it comes to WebDAVs and sundry, I'm not really qualified to speak to the technical details of using one address string over the other. All I can report on is what's working, and what isn't. That also being said, I can see what you mean about efficiency. I've been trying to sync my 4,500+ item library for _days_ and routinely have to restart the sync, as eventually an error message is thrown at me. It's not really that big of a deal, but I'm seeing that uploading a gigantic library to a WebDAV is a real PITA. (I was trying to Google around and see if there was a way to trick Zotero into reading a local folder as a WebDAV folder, and have it sync all the files there in one fell swoop, then just upload a giant folder to the server after everything was all set... but I doubt that's possible/it would likely mess things up between Zotero and the server. #pipedreams!)
  • What kind of error are you getting when navigating to the zotero folder in your browser? Is it an authentication error? FWIW, I can't reproduce the error using the steps described above.
  • Hi there aurimas-

    The problem(s) I continue to see are HTTP 500 "get" or "put" errors. I should say, the impetus behind switching to using WebDAV is my desire to use Zotpad on my iPad, so I can read/annotate PDFs in GoodReader. After a message from mrokko, the Zotpad developer, and some Googling, I found out that the https://dav.box.com/dav address will allow me to sync my library to the box.com servers in WebDAV, but _will NOT_ allow me to access the synced files in Zotpad. As such and per mrokko's suggestion, I switched my WebDAV address to https://www.box.com/dav. This works, to a point. I am about half way through my full library sync, and continually return the aforementioned HTTP 500 errors. According to some box.com documentation I came across, 500 errors indicate a problem on the box.com end, and currently have a help ticket out. I'll report back once I get an answer.

    I do seem to recall reading something about these HTTP 500 errors in the Zotero forum somewhere, and the person reporting the error indicated that they can only upload 1 or 2 files to the WebDAV before the error is reported. I'm having the same problem.

    I don't get errors accessing my zotero folder in my WebDAV, I only encounter them when performing a sync (both in Firefox and in the standalone.)

    A last point, I contacted 4shared about the apparent 5,000 file per folder limit, and it is indeed a limitation. So if you have a library greater than 2,500 citations with attached files, 4shared will not work, unfortunately.
  • this https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/28294/error-in-webdav-sync/
    suggests that box.com produces the 500 error for >5000 files as well

    Nothing Zotero can do about that. Unless I'm misinformed, ZotPad will work with Zotero Storage, of course.
  • Well, that's quite unfortunate. I have a rather substantial library, and being a graduate student, the cost of buying Zotero server space just isn't in the cards for me (I'd need to get their 20GB size). I might ask to get a larger share of my institution's server space, which allows our accounts to host WebDAVs. Either that, or I'll just suck up the slow up/down speeds, and make a WebDAV server out of a Raspberry Pi. At least that way, I'll be in control of it.
  • Yeah, there's a reason the discount WebDAVs are as cheap as they are.
    . I might ask to get a larger share of my institution's server space, which allows our accounts to host WebDAVs.
    For a university, of course, server space should be basically free and WebDAV easy to support - as I understand, that's one of the ways Zotero's WebDAV support was intended so that'd be the best way to go.

    I'd be less optimistic about running WebDAV from a Raspberry - most ISPs won't let you run a server.
  • I've considered the fact that ISPs frown upon servers running through their wires, and I think it would likely become an issue at some point, potentially.

    But I do have Charter, which routinely comes up as being among the most open ISP in the US, which is a plus, and I doubt I'd run into being flagged because of traffic. As for the ports needed for setting up a WebDAV, I've been googling about the web, and the WebDAVs set up with RPi's don't seem to be running into port block problems.

    As a side note, I briefly looked into setting up a Zotero WebDAV using DAV-Pocket, which allows you WebDAV access to your GoogleDocs account. I just set it up, and Zotero recognized it when I ran a server test. And attachements are uploading... I'll report back if I run into any size/file number ceilings.
  • @ryanadserias

    How has your experience with DAV-Pocket and google drive been?
  • edited May 8, 2022
    I'm using 4shared, which seems to be giving 15GB of free webdav, and it's been working great for a couple of weeks for me with no hiccups. I thought I'd read somewhere that the free accounts only last for 180 days, but that doesn't seem to be true. They last for 179 days from the last login. Zotero will re-login to the webdav server each time you restart it, so unless you go 179 days without restarting Zotero,you're good until the policy changes or the company goes away.

    I'm on MacOS 12.3.1 and Zotero 6.0.6

    https://www.4shared.com/web/helpCenter#par_three
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