How to reset data synching?

alanterra
At https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/267999#Comment_267999 adamsmith says "If you want to clean the copy on the server, do a restore to server from the Sync/Reset tab with the empty library." I can't figure out how to do this.

In Zotero, stand-alone, there is a "Reset" subpanel in the Sync panel of the preferences, and on the panel is a "Reset..." button, but as far as I can tell, this just wipes out your sync history, and causes Zotero to look at every record to decide what needs to be synched. And this is accompanied by a big warning to not do this unless you know what you are doing (and I don't).

If I click through on "Sync Reset Options" on the Sync "Settings" panel, I get instructions on how to reset the sync from the Firefox version of Zotero.

Is there a way to reset the sync in Zotero stand-alone (5.0 beta)?

[And, sorry, I refuse to spell this word "syncing"-- in my opinion it should be "synching" or "syncking" (like "trafficking"), but the world does not agree with me -- as in so many cases.]
  • adamsmith
    right, the options are gone for 5.0 https://github.com/zotero/zotero/issues/914 @Dan%20Stillman -- what's the way to handle this currently?
  • dstillman
    You can't at the moment. You'd have to delete all the items manually (which is likely what the option, when it's restored in 5.0, will do, because the alternative causes some complicated sync problems).

    But I would strongly discourage you from doing this. We can follow up on that in your other thread.
  • alanterra
    Before I go away, have you thought through how one would restore a Zotero database from backup? Normally my routine would be to

    1. Turn off synching
    2. Restore on my computer
    3. Overwrite the sync database at zotero.org
    4. Let the changes propagate to my other computers (if any)

    Without an option for step 3 above, are you sure that Zotero 5.0 will allow users to reliably restore from backup, and not have a sync destroy the backup with changes made after the backup was made?

    I tried the technique of deleting all my records on my local database, and I found that when the sync started, they all came back again. As far as I can tell, the only way to delete records at zotero.org is 25 records at a time (click, trash, empty trash, repeat). This is very slow when you have a lot of records.
  • dstillman
    edited January 17, 2017
    The option is being restored — it just needs to be reimplemented for the new sync architecture in 5.0.

    But deleting all records locally would be the same thing. Not sure what you mean by "I found that when the sync started, they all came back again" — unless there's some bug we're not aware of, 5.0 syncs deletions the same as anything else. You definitely don't need to use the web interface.
  • alanterra
    Well, it didn't in my case, but I am not in a position to replicate it. Probably an error of some sort on my side.
  • adamsmith
    edited January 18, 2017
    But deleting all records locally would be the same thing.
    I don't understand that, tbh:
    I take a backup at t-1. Something goes wrong at time t and is synced to the server.

    With restore to server (as it works now), I'd just restore the backup and restore to server to overwrite the changes made there at t.
    But by deleting the items locally at t+1 before restoring the database locally, I'd just expect them to get deleted when syncing (because the delete operation is logged by the server.

    What am I missing?
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