using zotero standalone on windows 7 and mac os, at the same time

bmckinle
I do not want to abandon my windows 7 standalone use. I'm writing a dissertation, so I want nothing to disrupt that activity. But, I just bought a new mac with a much better screen, so I want to try out standalone on the mac, without wrecking my windows 7. The problem: a couple of years ago I tried using two standalone installations (windows/windows) and the authoritative (windows I wanted undisturbed) was overwritten by the new standalone. I spent hours getting things back into shape. Question: I would really like to use my mac for writing, and I'd like to try moving to the mac but I don't want to stop writing on Windows in the interim. I don't want to "get intimate" with Zotero software architectural knowledge. What I would like is a how-to avoid the same loss of reference information I experienced before. I looked but see only moving standalone data. I don't want to do that. I want to use multiple, simultaneous standalone installations and have Zotero manage a union of the data. Can Zotero handle this requirement? Thanks!
  • adamsmith
    https://www.zotero.org/support/sync
    Sync will never overwrite any data that you haven't deleted explicitly.
  • bmckinle
    Syncing in practice with two computers is exactly what I tried a couple of years back. Again, I lost much work during that attempt. I didn't explicitly delete anything. The "transparent synchronizing" did not work for me as expected. Syncing from web to standalone is what I practice with and that has issues, like lagging sync. Anyway, explicit deletion of data versus inadvertent is not as relevant to me as -- somehow the sync did not work. I need a reliable recovery plan. Will an export/import suffice to cover me in the event of somehow something screwed up and I need to revert to a single machine? Or, is another approach recommended? Never really attempted an import before. ;)
  • adamsmith
    no, export/import won't serve as a back-up. See here:
    https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#backing_up_your_zotero_library

    There's not a single confirmed report of sync overwriting local data (you didn't report it at the time, either, at least not with your current username) and it's technically impossible, so something else happened last time you tried.
  • bmckinle
    So copying the data folder (Norhwestern) is the way to go. Ok. That's what I really need.

    I'll take a peek at the architecture so I can understand what's technically impossible or not. Thanks again for your help!
  • LauraERay
    My apologies if this topic has been covered, but I don't see it specifically laid out in the documentation. A faculty member wants to use zotero with (1) firefox or internet explorer on a work windows machine and (2) safari on a home mac machine. Are there any known bugs in doing this, or will creating a zotero account and entering her login info in the zotero sync server section be all that is needed?
  • adamsmith
    There are no issues using Zotero cross-platform and/or with different browsers.
    Obviously he'll need Zotero Standalone to work with Safari and Zotero doesn't work terribly well with Internet Explorer (the bookmarklet works fine when Standalone is open, but it performs much worse than the Firefox or Safari add-on)
  • LauraERay
    Thanks so much. My understanding is that she has Zotero Standalone on both machines. Hopefully she'll be good to go!
  • bmckinle
    I have confirmed that synchronization works between standalone machines, so long as you let the software perform the synchronization itself. A year or so back, I helped it by restoring a backup from my primary machine to a 2nd machine. What ensued was a mess, of course.

    Two standalone zotero installations will automatically synchronize themselves with changes made in either installation so long as they point to the same zotero account. For example, say you update an author on zotero1 and then press the refresh (top-left) on zotero2. The author change made on zotero1 will no appear on zotero2. If you reverse the machines, the same outcome will result. Whether this extends to more than two installations was untested.

    I have more 1000 references, so the 2nd zotero installation synchronization took about 20-30 minutes, or thereabouts. Small changes appear to synchronize rather quickly, but not instantly, which can be annoying. What happens if you make a change on zotero1 and zotero2 at the same time, or nearly so? I haven't had the need for that feature.
  • bmckinle
    correction... "...will NOW appear on zotero2..."
  • adamsmith
    edited October 31, 2014
    Small changes appear to synchronize rather quickly, but not instantly, which can be annoying. What happens if you make a change on zotero1 and zotero2 at the same time, or nearly so? I haven't had the need for that feature.
    small changes do sync within something like 10 seconds with auto-sync turned on, so for practical purposes instantaneously.
    For conflicting changes on multiple synced machines, Zotero displays a conflict resolution window when syncing. With auto-sync turned on on all computers, you'd be very unlikely to ever see that, but it does exist when needed.
    A year or so back, I helped it by restoring a backup from my primary machine to a 2nd machine. What ensued was a mess, of course.
    If you use a back-up as described above, that would work just fine and not cause any types of problems. Using export/import does make a mess of syncing, though (but by duplicating, not deleting data).
  • adamsmith
    Whether this extends to more than two installations was untested.
    obviously it does. There is theoretically no limit to the number of machines you can sync via a Zotero account and I know of groups with more than 100 members.
  • bmckinle
    I used import/export to affect a backup/restore, which is what a lot of people in the real world are likely to do, rather than copy directories of files. A tool tip on the refresh button with some tips would be most helpful to people engaged in using zotero in more sophisticated ways for the first time. These are good software engineering techniques to improve the experience. Google is engaged in new cloud-based reference management systems that likely do a better job of guiding the user through common and error-avoiding use cases. This saves users' precious time, which is what software like this should do.
  • bmckinle
    Not really interested in theoretical limits of this tool, only that it works for me. ;)

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