Thanks, Dan. Yes, I saved my Zotero folder from one computer and installed it on the second computer. Then, I updated both computers to 1.5 and did the sync, so the server was making a duplicate copy of all of my records into both computers.

So, now I am going to replace the Zotero folder in "updated" computer with my backup (thank goodness for the backup) and then erase the Zotero database on the other computer so that it is blank. Then I will clear the server data as you suggest and see if I get duplicates again.

Once this works once - synching from an updated database to a "blank" one on a new computer, will the server then understand that the two computers now share the same list of records? I guess what I'm asking is - will the duplicate problem keep happening once the two computers' Zotero databases are synchronized?

Thanks for the help - The potential here is huge. Thanks again.

Ok, got it working, thanks for the help. Just one thought: The only way I was able to truly eliminate the database from one of the computers (remote, not host) was to create a new Firefox profile, install Zotero, then go to the profiles folder and copy the Zotero folder and paste it into the "default" profile folder. Only then did the Zotero server recognize my remote Zotero database as truly "empty" so that no records were duplicated.

I suppose the documentation on this could be clearer if it stated that the remote computer should have a brand new "blank" Zotero database in order to avoid duplication (just deleting your records with the backspace button does not work - then Zotero tries to do a merge function with each and every record to deal with discrepancies between the server and the local databases, and that appears to be a big mess).

Thanks again for the help - Now that I understand the process, I will be more able to implement it on other remote computers.

Before i noticed there was a sync version of Zotero, i synced manually by copying zotero.sqlite between three computers whenever i added sources. Needless to say, now that i have the sync version i get duplication. Strange enough, all items are quadrupled, even though i use only three computers.

But this needn't be, because unlike the feature request or the trouble shooting discussion that were posted earlier, in this case the records will be identical and it should be clear that these items should not be duplicated. Even when adding a source, it doesn't require a lot of logic to determine if the source is identical and conclude that it is already present in the database.

This still leaves the issue open for variations or records with different metadata, but in the case of an identical record i propose that the syncing and adding operations should acknowledge the items are the same and not duplicate them.

Hi, I had (and still have) tha same problems after updating to 1.5b. Unfortunately, before I had two different libraries, which I hoped to merge nicely with the sync option, now I have duplicates one both and it will be a bit more tedious than for jsullivan47 to get a clean database again.

May I suggest that you give a short list of useful steps to do before upgrading? (right next to the installation button maybe???) That's better than fixing the bugs after the mess is there! (I would not have found this post warning me of the duplicates, if I hadn't encountered the same problem and looked up the keyword "duplicates" - even though I checked for potential bugs before upgrading!)

Otherwise, I'm thrilled with the now available sync function and if you could do sth on automatic duplicate detection (and a smart merging in the case one has edited both independently)... there will be almost nothing left to wish for!

wconnerton: If you just upgraded to Zotero, and you did a backup first as the instructions advise, you could move your current data directory out of the way, swap in a copy of your backup data directory, and then do a Restore to Server before opening the Zotero pane by going to Tools->Add-ons->right-click-on-Zotero->Sync->Reset. (If you open the Zotero pane first, it will auto-sync, and then you'd have triplicates.)