Can't sync, can't delete, can't start over.

tsawallis
I understand the 1.5b2 that's driving me crazy is beta, but I’m in it for the sync or not at all. I reckoned on going slow & safe, becoming expert before becoming dependent.

Setup: Zotero 1.5b2, Intel iMac, OS 10.5.6, Firefox 3.0.8. Only 58 records, maybe half with attached PDFs. No idea if I have long tags or not.

Because it’s beta, I read lots of background info on the site. The basic sync doc at www.zotero.org/support/sync is thin with no clear steps delineated, so I tried using the steps at ../support/using_a_folder_synchronization_service instead. Big mistake. Everything slowed down by a factor of maybe 100. Firefox restart with saved windows & tabs took 5, maybe 10 minutes. Reread the doc, managed to infer there are 2 KINDS of sync, one via the preferences Sync tab, one via Advanced.

Reset Prefs>Advanced>Storage location to ‘Use Firefox profile directory’ and everything sped up again. But why can’t I delete the WebDAV directory specs? Later.

At Prefs>Advanced>Storage location, I had to create a self-named folder (ZoteroLibrary) and then browse to it to select it. The regular method, at Prefs>Sync, required a folder named “zotero” (which I eventually realized I also had to create) and it required that I type in the rest of the WebDAV URL, in my case at MobileMe, plus my username and PW. Server verified (but why a yellow triangle?), so I clicked ‘Enable file syncing’.

I might have been here, or might have been earlier at the “folder sync” that I got half way through a sync, judging by the progress bar, before I canceled for the night, thinking to pick it up again the next day.

Picking it up again? Impossible. Clicked the green spinner, let it run for hours, and nothing budged on the progress bar. Tried multiple times. Looked in the zotero folder. Bunches of Unix executable files, paired or grouped with other extensions I didn’t recognize. Nothing like the files in my Firefox library, or in the old mis-synced ZoteroLibrary folder. Deleted them and tried again. Nothing. ‘zotero’ remained empty.

Twice tried Pref>Sync>Reset>Restore to Zotero server. Message claimed success, but nothing changed. Twice tried GearMenu>Reset Storage History. No message, no effect.

Alright, so be it. I somehow screwed things up from the start, either by the folder sync method or by interrupting the sync. I’ll just delete everything on the server and start over.

BUT NO!!! Try to rename ‘zotero’ or ‘ZoteroLibrary’ and the changes are rejected as in use. Quit Firefox, ‘zotero’ is renamable, but not ‘ZoteroLibrary’. Quit everything else, no change. So reboot. ‘ZoteroLibrary’ is still in use, even after reboot! Won’t rename and WON’T DELETE!

So:

1. Multiple forum and blog discussions, where the confused mumble and the gurus speak jargon, cannot substitute for clear, complete, explicit instructions. Yours are clear, but neither complete nor explicit. Hire an English major.

2. Is there some obvious place where I derailed? Is there a recognizable, or at least plausible remedy I missed somewhere in the forums? Any diagnoses or suggestions?

3. Gimme back my iDisk!!! How do I delete this @#!$!% folder ?!?!?!?

Zotero looks like, should be, and I expect will be a miracle when it is a finished work. If this is the learning curve, though, with a new problem around every corner, maybe I should just uninstall and wait until 1.5 comes out of beta.
  • noksagt
    No need to make multiple posts. It is actually counter-productive: I had written a response in one of your other threads, but your duplicate post was deleted before I posted my reply. This post will be much shorter than my original reply:
    1. The documentation seems to me to be quite good for a beta product. Much of it is written by volunteers. You are free to improve it yourself or to offer specific and constructive criticism (e.g. where is it incomplete or inexplicit?).
    2. It isn't clear to me what you have tried to do with files on your local disk and what you have tried to do with files on your two servers. I also don't know what the current state of affairs on your local machine and your WebDAV server is.
    3. This sounds like it has little to do with zotero and everything to do with idisk. Turn off/STOP iDisk Syncing in System Preference.
  • tsawallis
    Sorry for the multiple posts. I re-posted here when I realized the content fit better here than in Troubleshooting. I appended notes apologizing in both places, but the moderators must have relocated the original, eliminating my apologies.

    1. Problems with the documentation are not limited to the new functions of 1.5. In http://www.zotero.org/support/archive_the_web, neither the text nor the screencast notes that you get better bibliographic data (at least from the NY Times) by clicking the location bar newspaper icon rather than the ‘add this web page’ icon in Zotero’s middle pane. Nor does the pertinent documentation (i.e., the just mentioned text and screencast, plus the text at http://www.zotero.org/support/attaching_files) mention that GearMenu>Preferences>General has a button to “Automatically take snapshots when creating items from web pages.” I spent 3 hours getting to this function of Zotero 1.0, time lost to weak documentation.

    If I knew where to send this, I would, but I still contend it would take a tech writer with overall responsibility to pull the documentation into a form approachable by users at all levels. Volunteers aren’t enough.

    2. I’ve done nothing with the files on my local disk, and as far as I know Zotero is working fine, locally.

    I have one WebDAV server, my iDisk, on which I have two folders used by Zotero for Sync purposes. The second folder, zotero, I created in my second attempt to sync, using GearMenu>Preferences>Sync>Storage Server. It is now empty, and can be renamed or deleted unless Firefox is running.

    The first folder, ZoteroLibrary, I created to do what I originally thought was the right & recommended way to sync, i.e., that described in http://www.zotero.org/support/using_a_folder_synchronization_service. Specifically, I created ZoteroLibrary in order to browse to and select it in GearMenu>Preferences>Advanced>Storage location. It contains zotero.sqlite, zotero.sqlite-journal, zotero.sqlite.tmp, and 3 folders, storage, styles, and translators. These were apparently created during a Sync operation, I presume during my misguided “folder sync”.

    This second folder is the infuriating one. I’m naturally trying to unroll everything and start again with the regular sync method rather than folder sync. To do so, I have tried to delete reference to it in http://www.zotero.org/Prefs/Advanced/Storage location, but that is apparently impossible. I have also tried to delete ZoteroLibrary. It won’t delete, not when Firefox is running, not after Firefox is stopped, not even after I reboot.

    I consider this a grave transgression. A local add-on to a local program should not be able to usurp permanent control of my server space.

    3. This has only to do with Zotero and nothing to do with iDisk. I have never used iDisk syncing in System Preferences.

    Again, help would be appreciated.
  • dstillman
    I consider this a grave transgression. A local add-on to a local program should not be able to usurp permanent control of my server space.
    Consider it what you may, but nothing related to Zotero is running on your system when Firefox is closed. If this problem occurs after restarting your computer, before you start Firefox, and with no Firefox process showing in Activity Monitor, it has nothing to do with Zotero, as noksagt said above.

    You can try opening a Terminal window and running the following command:

    lsof | grep -i zotero
    That might tell you what process is holding the lock on the ZoteroLibrary folder. I have no idea if it'll work in your case, though.
  • noksagt
    edited April 5, 2009
    In http://www.zotero.org/support/archive_the_web, neither the text nor the screencast notes that you get better bibliographic data (at least from the NY Times) by clicking the location bar newspaper icon rather than the ‘add this web page’ icon in Zotero’s middle pane.
    Both the quick start guide and getting stuff into your library show this feature & both are listed before archive the web. I've added a link back to getting_stuff_into_your_library to the archive_the_web page to help direct people to that important information.
    Nor does the pertinent documentation....mention that GearMenu>Preferences>General has a button to “Automatically take snapshots when creating items from web pages.”
    This should be added, I guess.
    If I knew where to send this, I would
    A new thread with specific comments, such as the ones you made above would help. Depending on how much you wanted to revise it, I'd imagine you could get a wiki account.
    Specifically, I created ZoteroLibrary in order to browse to and select it in GearMenu>Preferences>Advanced>Storage location.
    This is likely why your Zotero was slow: network access is very slow. If you wanted to use a third party sync tool (though I doubt very much that you do), you'd want to use a local folder & then keep that folder in sync.
    To do so, I have tried to delete reference to it in http://www.zotero.org/Prefs/Advanced/Storage location, but that is apparently impossible.
    If you have "Use firefox profile directory" selected (and it sounds like you do) or if you choose another (local!!!) directory for your data, than this shouldn't matter.
    I have also tried to delete ZoteroLibrary.
    How are you trying to delete it?
    It won’t delete, not when Firefox is running, not after Firefox is stopped, not even after I reboot.

    I consider this a grave transgression. A local add-on to a local program should not be able to usurp permanent control of my server space.
    And it hasn't. If Firefox is not running, it is absolutely impossible for Zotero to be accessing that directory or to control it in any way. I maintain that you are probably experiencing an iDisk issue.

    Unmount any idrives on your machine; delete any disk images that appear; use the delete option on me.com
  • Tjowens
    Thanks for taking the time to layout difficulties you had with the documentation. Since the “Automatically take snapshots when creating items from web pages” preferences is checked by default I take your request to be to better document the “Automatically attach PDFs and other associated files" pref. I added a paragraph about the pref to the quick start guide.

    Please start threads about anything that seems unclear in the documentation. Feedback from new users is essential to making sure it is as easy as possible for new users to get started with Zotero.
  • tsawallis
    Well, God knows how, but I managed to delete everything on my iDisk and start over. I've found more confusions about the documentation I'll discuss later, but in the meantime my (new) first file sync seems to be stuck. The progress bar made it to halfway in about 15 minutes and has not budged noticeably in the past 45. I still have only 58 records totaling about 130 MB. Should I just be patient, or is action called for?

    Also, Tjowens, while "Automatically attach ..." IS checked by default, "Automatically take snapshots..." is NOT, which I just verified, since part of my starting over included uninstalling and reinstalling from the website.

    Any advice on the stalled document sync?

    Thanks,

    Tom
  • noksagt
    Also, Tjowens, while "Automatically attach ..." IS checked by default, "Automatically take snapshots..." is NOT, which I just verified, since part of my starting over included uninstalling and reinstalling from the website.
    When you uninstall extensions from Firefox, the settings for those extensions are still maintained when you uninstall/reinstall. One could verify that Tjowens is correct by using a fresh profile.
    Any advice on the stalled document sync?
    None that come immediately to my mind. In your idisk, how many files do you see? Compare this to the number of directories in your zotero storage directory on your local disk (when everything is synced, you should have exactly twice the number of files on your idisk as you do directories on your local disk). You can also see if the number/size of files on your idisk is changing with time.
  • tsawallis
    I have zero file in my iDisk zotero folder.

    Any new advice?
  • noksagt
    Go to: http://www.zotero.org/tsawallis/17958/items
    and confirm that your metadata is syncing.

    Gear->sync and verify the WebDAV server again.

    Finally, follow instructions on bug reporting:
    http://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_bugs
  • tsawallis
    Now I have 100 files in local zotero storage, 196 in server zotero. I has always been thus, through maybe five relaunchings and 1 reboot. Each time, the sync spinner spins, the progress bar stays blank, and hovering on the progress bar shows 0% progress, downloads none, and 2900 KB remaining (0/2 files). Error report 575349731.

    Any ideas?
  • noksagt
    I can't tell you why your last two files won't sync; hopefully one of the Zotero devs who views error reports will have insight.

    It may be useful to them to know if you had to do anything special to get those first 98 directories to sync, though.
  • tsawallis
    I'm not aware of having done anything special.

    Well after it first stalled I did try Gear>Reset Storage History, to no recognizable effect.
  • tsawallis
    I got no response to posting my error report number (both above, and in a separate thread, now vanished), so I took things into my own hands.

    First, a brief resume: I had 100 items in local zotero storage, 196 items in server zotero. Sync was stalled, through maybe five relaunchings and 1 reboot. Each time, the sync spinner spun, the progress bar stayed blank, and hovering on the progress bar showed 0% progress, downloads none, and 2900 KB remaining (0/2 files). Error report 575349731.

    Since I had so few records and files, I checked manually which local files were refusing to sync. Local items are <randomstring>-named folders, which per noksagt should generate exactly twice the number of items in server zotero after a successful sync, specifically paired .prop and .zip files with the same <randomstring> names as the local folders. Turned out what wouldn’t sync was two snapshot files (plus whatever was associated) of the NY Times Frugal Traveler blog. With only one in my database, I eventually figured out the other was in the Trash. Emptying the trash is not in the documentation, so I tried key combos and eventually emptied it. Progress bar hovering now showed 0/1 files. Progress! I deleted the entry in Zotero and again emptied the trash. Sync spinner spun, progress bar blinked briefly into and out of existence, and the spinner stopped. Bingo! Sync synced!

    After a bit more fooling around, new situation: 60 items in local zotero storage, 198 in server zotero. To bring that to the desired 1:2 ratio, I tried Gear>Purge Deleted Storage Files: no effect. Gear>Purge Orphaned Storage Files: bingo again, my server files dropped to 120. I quit again and restarted, sync worked again.

    I presume everything’s running right, this episode is over and this thread ended. Loose ends will be in other threads.
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