sync issue

SRConte
ID: 972722568

This is being repeated numerous times:
[JavaScript Error: "Win error 5 during operation removeEmptyDir on file C:\Users\Sean\Zotero\storage\MX4G4TPW (Access is denied.
)" {file: "(unknown module)" line: 0}]

[JavaScript Error: "Download request 1/MPIH6QXD failed"]


It's making it so that I can't open many of my files. However names and categorization still sync properly.

Zotero and Windows are up to date.
  • dstillman
    That's most likely either security software or file permissions on your computer interfering with Zotero's ability to write to its data directory.
  • SRConte
    Thanks for the quick reply. Is there a particular setting and/or folder that I should be concerned with?

    I've gone as far as resetting Windows with a clean install. So I have no security software except for their native one, and I haven't changed any permission settings.
  • dstillman
    Zotero is getting permissions errors for lots of folders within 'storage' in the data directory.

    Did you copy this data directory from another computer?

    If you go to the folder mentioned in the error message (MX4G4TPW), is it empty?
  • SRConte
    I do have the data directory on another computer, and there the folders do have the files. (And there's no sync issue.)

    When I check the same folders here, they are empty.

    (To be clear, some of the files and folders work just fine. And I'm not sure what the difference is.)
  • dstillman
    edited September 22, 2022
    No, I'm asking whether you copied this folder from another computer, not whether you synced it using Zotero. That would be one reason for permissions to be incorrect. But it doesn't sound like you did that.

    Ultimately, something is preventing Zotero from making changes to the data directory, so you'll have to check the file permissions or figure out what outside of Zotero is doing that.
  • SRConte
    I see. Thanks for clarifying.

    That leads me to think this is because of a mistake I made years ago, when I made both the storage locations for my computers to be a Google Drive folder (since I have my drive synced to my computers). My guess is that makes it so that I essentially just copied it like you suggest. Since then, I realized the mistake, and I've made the storage locations to be truly local directories (that don't sync outside of Zotero). But it sounds like that might still be the underlying cause here. Given that, is there any chance doing a sync-reset will help/be necessary?

    (And yes, I'm taking your advice, and am currently trying to figure out the permissions.)
  • dstillman
    No, there's nothing to do in Zotero here. You just want to fix the permissions outside of Zotero.

    (Technically if you're sure all your files are online, you could delete 'storage' altogether and reset file sync history and let Zotero try to download all the files again, but there are some other hidden files in the 'storage' folders for other uses (e.g., full-text indexing) that you would lose, so that's really not recommended.)
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