Sync Issues

I have found several posts related to sync issues in the Zotero Forum, but I am not quite sure that any of these can solve my problem. Lately I have noticed that some references in one of my local library subfolders (work computer) were gone, or rather they ended up in the "Unclassified" subfolder - not very useful. The Web Library, and the local library on my home computer, were identical, i.e., empty subfolders, and references that used to be in these subfolders were now in the "Unclassified" subfolder. Fortunately, Time Machine on my home computer allows me to retrieve a previous version of the entire home computer library, with references in the appropriate subfolders. However, after uploading this previous version and allowing sync to proceed, the Web Library version with empty subfolders overwrites the local folders, which end up empty again. Is the solution to replace the online library with the contents of my home computer local library, as per the instructions from https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/sync_reset_options? I am hesitant to proceed, because the backup library on my home computer appears to have some missing subfolders, so whantever local library I use to restore and sync, I might end up losing references, or else they will be misplaced in the not-very-useful "Unclassified" folder. What I would like to do is to merge the two local libraries (work and home computers), with elimination of duplicates, before allowing sync to proceed as usual. Is this doable? Or else do you have a solution?
  • This wouldn't happen automatically — you'd have to have accidentally removed the items from the collections they were in. They'd then show up in Unfiled Items if you didn't actually move them to the trash.

    If you want to undo that, you can use your backup, create new collections for each of the collections, and copy the items into the new collections. Then just sync normally. The items will be removed from the old collections, because those previous changes will be downloaded, but your new changes to put them in the new collections will be uploaded.
  • Makes sense. Thanks. It might require some work to sort out which subfolders from work and home computers to keep vs. to throw away, but I see what you mean.
  • You don't really need both computers to figure that out. The changes that removed the items from the collections are already online and will sync down as soon as you sync. So you just need to restore from the backup, duplicate any collections locally that show as empty online, and then sync. You can then delete the empty collections.
  • I don't want to waste your time by continuing this thread forever, but as I said in a previous post, some missing references are in the work computer local data, other missing references are in the home computer local data, and I think most references are found in both local libraries (and online). When you say " ... duplicate any collections locally that show as empty online ... ", this implies that I should check every single local subfolder and compare it with the online library, then duplicate under a different name those subfolders that are empty online, then sync? It would have been great to be able to duplicate an entire local library using a different name while keeping all the subfolder structure, but I don't think this is possible, is it?
  • It would have been great to be able to duplicate an entire local library using a different name while keeping all the subfolder structure, but I don't think this is possible, is it?
    I'm not really sure what you mean by this, but I think we can just say the answer is no.
    I should check every single local subfolder and compare it with the online library, then duplicate under a different name those subfolders that are empty online, then sync?
    Yes, though I don't know about "every" — again, this would've had to have been caused by something you did, and I don't know how widely your library was affected. But you would want to create a copy of affected collections, as explained in Restoring Your Zotero Data From a Backup and Overwriting Synced Changes.

    To be clear, you're not duplicating the items — you're just adding them to copies of the collections. It doesn't sound like any items are actually "missing".
Sign In or Register to comment.