Zotero standalone excessively slow loading

JennK · February 7, 2019

Over the past couple of days my Zotero standalone has become so slow (loading, copying PDFs into folders, etc.) that it is basically nonfunctional for practical purposes. Is anyone else experiencing this problem and/or have an idea about what is going on?

dstillman · February 7, 2019

Can you provide a Debug ID for Zotero startup, using the "Restart with Logging Enabled…" option?

JennK · February 8, 2019

@dstillman, here is the Debug ID: D742993352. I logged a period of time in which I tried to copy 3 PDFs (simultaneously) to a folder in Zotero. It took so long, I eventually aborted the process.

JennK · February 16, 2019

Hi @dstillman. I currently have my Zotero storage located on an institutional shared drive, which I am accessing through a VPN. I think this may be causing the major delays and problems with my Zotero standalone. Therefore, I am currently transferring my files to the C drive on my laptop. Going forward, is there any need to save a copy of the Zotero storage file on a hard disk as insurance in the event my laptop becomes non-functional? Or is this an unnecessary step given that the files are stored online in the Zotero database? Thank you!

dstillman · February 18, 2019

Yes, loading from a shared drive could certainly cause slowdowns.

Going forward, is there any need to save a copy of the Zotero storage file on a hard disk as insurance in the event my laptop becomes non-functional?

It's always a good idea to have a backup of any important data, the Zotero data directory included. The online library could obviously help you recover if you something happened to your laptop, but it's not a true backup, in that changes you make sync automatically and there's no version history.