Upgrade StorageSyncing / base directory / data directory snafu
I’m a librarian, trying to help a faculty member at my institution with a Zotero library.
I’m hoping for some advice about how to help him best resolve issues he’s experiencing.
He’s been using Zotero for many years. He stores his Zotero files on his personal networked drive at our institution, rather than his local computer. (He has both the “base directory” and the “data directory location” pointing to that folder.) He has an account on Zotero’s sync server and has been syncing his collection. He’s been using the Zotero in-browser version on Firefox. Here are the issues as we’ve been able to diagnose them so far.
1. About a month or so ago, he installed Chrome on his machine and with it Zotero Standalone and the Chrome connector. He pointed the “base directory” and “data directory location” to his personal networked drive. He added approximately six items to that instance of Zotero. But only those six items appear in his Standalone directory. None of the pre-existing items show there. His Firefox instance is still there and, again, only those six items display. When we look at the actual Zotero folder on his networked drive, many more folders and items are there. Why are those items in the networked folder not displaying in his Zotero interface?
2. When we access his synced account via the Zotero website, most of his items seem to be there yet items added since March 2016 to the present appear to be missing. He doesn’t remember removing his account information for syncing from his Zotero interface at any point. The items he most recently added with Chrome/Standalone aren’t there because he didn’t yet sync via the new interface. While he’s fine with sacrificing the most recent six or so items, we don’t think we can resync his Zotero library with his synced account for fear of losing the March 2016-present content that we think is still in his Zotero folder on his personal networked drive. Why would his March 2016-present items be missing from the Zotero site?
Our plan is to (1) copy the Zotero folder on his personal networked drive so it’s backed up and accessible from another location, (2) uninstall all Zotero application files from his computer (Firefox and Chrome), (3) reinstall Zotero Standalone and the Chrome connector, (4) move the copy of his Zotero folder back to the networked drive, (5) point the base directory and data directory location to the networked drive, (6) add his credentials to Standalone in order to sync his files with Zotero’s server.
Does this plan make sense to others? Any problems you can foresee? Anything I should check about the Zotero folder on the networked drive to ensure it’s not corrupted or otherwise problematic? Thanks in advance for any advice.
I’m hoping for some advice about how to help him best resolve issues he’s experiencing.
He’s been using Zotero for many years. He stores his Zotero files on his personal networked drive at our institution, rather than his local computer. (He has both the “base directory” and the “data directory location” pointing to that folder.) He has an account on Zotero’s sync server and has been syncing his collection. He’s been using the Zotero in-browser version on Firefox. Here are the issues as we’ve been able to diagnose them so far.
1. About a month or so ago, he installed Chrome on his machine and with it Zotero Standalone and the Chrome connector. He pointed the “base directory” and “data directory location” to his personal networked drive. He added approximately six items to that instance of Zotero. But only those six items appear in his Standalone directory. None of the pre-existing items show there. His Firefox instance is still there and, again, only those six items display. When we look at the actual Zotero folder on his networked drive, many more folders and items are there. Why are those items in the networked folder not displaying in his Zotero interface?
2. When we access his synced account via the Zotero website, most of his items seem to be there yet items added since March 2016 to the present appear to be missing. He doesn’t remember removing his account information for syncing from his Zotero interface at any point. The items he most recently added with Chrome/Standalone aren’t there because he didn’t yet sync via the new interface. While he’s fine with sacrificing the most recent six or so items, we don’t think we can resync his Zotero library with his synced account for fear of losing the March 2016-present content that we think is still in his Zotero folder on his personal networked drive. Why would his March 2016-present items be missing from the Zotero site?
Our plan is to (1) copy the Zotero folder on his personal networked drive so it’s backed up and accessible from another location, (2) uninstall all Zotero application files from his computer (Firefox and Chrome), (3) reinstall Zotero Standalone and the Chrome connector, (4) move the copy of his Zotero folder back to the networked drive, (5) point the base directory and data directory location to the networked drive, (6) add his credentials to Standalone in order to sync his files with Zotero’s server.
Does this plan make sense to others? Any problems you can foresee? Anything I should check about the Zotero folder on the networked drive to ensure it’s not corrupted or otherwise problematic? Thanks in advance for any advice.
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Having the data directory on a networked drive can cause problems
a) by corrupting the directory if it's opened from two places at once
b) in some cases because network operations don't load the database file properly and you get startup errors. That doesn't appear to be the case here, but you should be aware of it. If "Networked" essentially means that the drive is used as a roaming profile (even if that's not technically what is used) that's fine, though.
Zotero databases are a single file -- zotero.sqlite. So if you open Zotero for Standalone and you see different files than when opening the Firefox add-ons, it's almost certain that the two are opening different database files. My guess would be that the custom data directory in Standalone is set to a different folder after all -- could be one level above or one level below the one for Firefox.
For sync, see https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/changes_not_syncing
I wouldn't recommend doing any re-installs or moving any folders around at this point. Rather, I'd first troubleshoot the Standalone issue and once that's sorted, the sync issue. You can post any questions or problems along the way in this thread.
https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data
Are both paths _exactly_ the same? If not then there are ways to combine the data file.
You said "Zotero databases are a single file -- zotero.sqlite. So if you open Zotero for Standalone and you see different files than when opening the Firefox add-ons, it's almost certain that the two are opening different database files. My guess would be that the custom data directory in Standalone is set to a different folder after all -- could be one level above or one level below the one for Firefox." Just to clarify his situation... When we open Standalone and Firefox, it appears they are both pointing to the same location. And we see the same items in both--just the six most recently added items. Nothing else. When we go to his network drive and open the Zotero folder that we think his data directory is supposed to be pointing to (not through Zotero, just through his computer file manager view) we see many, many folders suggesting that much more content is there, just not connecting to the Zotero interface(s).
Once I have access, I'll again compare the data directory locations to confirm whether or not they're the same, but I wonder if this additional information brings anything else to mind for you. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.