Only Syncing (DATA/FILE) a Subset of My Library

brianjd
edited July 19, 2017
I currently sync my files using Zotero file storage. My items are typically publicly-available research papers. But, in addition these items, I'd like to include company-sensitive data/files in Zotero LOCALLY on my work computer WITHOUT syncing them. (infosec will not let me sync these over Zotero servers). Is there a good/easy way to do this? As far as I can tell, the only options are:

1. Set up a new account for my work docs
2. Set up an infosec-compliant WebDAV and sync over that

Neither of those options are ideal.

Am I asking to use Zotero in a way it was not intended? If so, is there a different tool which I should be using?
  • bwiernik
    edited July 20, 2017
    Is it acceptable to sync the item metadata without the attachment files? If so, then the best way would be to add items as normal, but to add the attachments as Linked Files pointing to local files on your computer. Zotero won't sync these locally-stored files.

    If not, then your best best would be to make a separate Group Library in your account for the sensitive items. Then, in the Sync preferences in Zotero 5.0, click the Choose Libraries button and de-select syncing of the sensitive library (after doing one initial sync of the empty group library to make it pop up in the client program). Zotero won't sync any changes to that library then, so you can make changes locally without them being sent to any server. This will also help to make a clear distinction between which items are being synced and which are not.

    (Of course, another option would be to set up an infosec-compliant WebDAV server. But note that WebDAV is only used to sync attachment files, not metadata. Metadata in synced libraries is always stored on Zotero servers. So this solution has the same limitation as the first option I gave.)
  • brianjd
    If there were a setup where I could 1. sync data/files for my personal stuff but 2. only sync data for work stuff, that might be ok (I worry that some work docs might give away too much in their titles). But if the proposal is to ONLY sync data for ALL of my stuff (both personal and work), then that would not work.
  • bwiernik
    Okay, look at the two options I gave in my post above. Your best bet would be to set up a Group library for storing your sensitive work items, then disabling syncing on this Group library. That will let you work with your work items locally, without anything being sent to a server (and the separate libraries in the client will make it clear which items are being synced and which are not).
  • brianjd
    TL;DR

    Syncing My Library only ALSO syncs my Work Library. Why is this happening?

    DETAIL:

    bwiernik, I really liked the second option you gave. So I went through with it:

    * Set up new Group Library by going to Zotero website > Groups > Create a New Group > Choose group name and select "Private Membership" > Create Group
    * Sync my libraries using the upper-right-hand-side sync icon in the desktop app
    * My New Group Library "Work" shows up. Nice!
    * Turn of syncing of my Work library in the desktop app by going Edit > Preferences > Sync > Settings > Choose Libraries > unchecking "Work"
    * Now I add an item to my Work library. I check that it wasn't auto-sync'd to my web storage. Success! It wasn't auto-sync'd.
    * BUT, I then right-click "My Library" > Sync, to validate that this behavior won't accidentally sync my Work Library as well. Unfortunately, this DOES sync my Work library. This is obviously still the case when I sync by using the sync icon in the upper-right-hand-side of the desktop app (which, I expect would sync everything, given the layout)
  • brianjd
    ...I believe this is a bug. I'd expect that when right-clicking on my personal library and selecting sync, that would ONLY sync my personal library. Instead, it seems to sync ALL libraries (even when I've deselected other libraries from syncing via Edit > Preferences...) If this is indeed a bug, then the work around would either be:

    1. AUTOSYNC ON: Never manually sync anything and rely on the auto-sync to sync my personal library (which is selected to auto-sync via Edit > Preferences...) or
    2. AUTOSYNC OFF: Turn off auto-sync and rely on manually syncing my personal library (when I sync this way, I get expect behavior: Zotero ONLY syncs my personal library and not BOTH my personal and work libraries)
  • adamsmith
    I agree that this is probably a bug and if not needs to be better signaled/documented to users.

    But FWIW your default mode of working with Zotero should be with autosync on, so this is very much a viable workaround.
  • brianjd
    @adamsmith: My workaround #1 above appears to no longer be a viable option. I'm getting random syncing behavior of my unsync'd work library to Zotero servers. I can't quite recreate when it happens. But it happens. So, workaround #2 seems to be the only option
  • dstillman
    I'm not seeing this. Can you provide a Debug ID for a right-click -> Sync on My Library that causes another library to sync?

    Just to clarify the expected behavior here, "Choose Libraries…" should affect auto-sync and the main sync icon. If a library is disabled, it shouldn't sync automatically on local or remote changes and shouldn't sync when you click the Sync button.

    When you select Sync from a library's context menu, that library — and only that library — should sync, regardless of the setting in "Choose Libraries…".

    (You could make the case that unchecking a library in "Choose Libraries…" should remove the Sync option from the context menu, but we felt the most common pattern here would be that you had a large library that you only wanted to sync on-demand through an explicit action. Eventually we'd like to allow finer-grained control so that you could, by entering your password again, choose which available libraries would actually show up locally, which seems like a better solution for the case of not wanting to sync a library to a given computer at all.)
  • adamsmith
    I'm not seeing this. Can you provide a Debug ID for a right-click -> Sync on My Library that causes another library to sync?
    that's the one thing brianjd _isn't_ reporting if I follow correctly (it's his workaround 2, which he says is still working). Do you mean pressing the main sync button?

    (I completely agree with the expected behavior, FWIW)
  • dstillman
    that's the one thing brianjd _isn't_ reporting if I follow correctly
    Isn't that this?
    I'd expect that when right-clicking on my personal library and selecting sync, that would ONLY sync my personal library. Instead, it seems to sync ALL libraries (even when I've deselected other libraries from syncing via Edit > Preferences...)
  • brianjd
    Debug ID is D177668079. This included the process of me de-selecting autosync for my Work library before adding an item to my Work library and right-click-syncing My Library.
  • adamsmith
    and the work library item synced in that instance?

  • brianjd
    That's correct.
  • dstillman
    As far as I can tell, the issue here was only with auto-sync, which was incorrectly including unchecked groups. Right-click -> Sync and the Sync button were working correctly. I think you were confused by this just because the 15-second auto-sync was kicking in around the same time you were right-clicking.

    This is fixed now in the latest 5.0 Beta and will be included in 5.0.7. Thanks for reporting!
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