Stop automatic sync online before opening Zotero app

mvanack
Hello,

I need to retrieve tagged papers from a shared group folder that have already been removed by one user. However one person in the group has not logged on and so their automatic sync hasn't occurred yet - making it possible to retrieve the papers. Is there a way to turn off automatic sync from your account on Zotero online without having to open the app? We are concerned that once the app is opened the papers will begin to be lost. Thank you!

Best,
Meredith
  • adamsmith
    For one, make a copy of their data folder as a back-up, so if something goes wrong, you can just try again.

    There's no formal option to do this, but there's at least two ways you can achieve it:
    1. Simply change your password online: sync will then fail and you can make local changes etc. first
    2. Just disable your computer's wifi before starting Zotero and again make the changes as desired.
  • dstillman
    edited December 19, 2023
    Changing your password won't prevent existing devices from syncing. You'd have to remove the registered device from the (currently badly named) Feeds/API tab of the account settings. Disabling the network connection is the better option here.

    Also note that the exact action here depends exactly what was done, since Zotero will try to download the deletion once you sync. See Step 3 of Restoring Your Zotero Data From a Backup and Overwriting Synced Changes for an explanation of some specific steps depending on what was changed. (The local database is essentially a backup in this case.)
  • mvanack
    Thank you both for the assistance. It sounds like having the group member turn off their wifi while opening Zotero, exporting the citations for the tagged papers as a .csv. Since we only need the citation list and not the actual papers back I think this should work after reading the links. If there is something I haven't understood correctly please let me know.
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