Annotations are not synced

victordong · December 18, 2023

I'm using the zotero pdf reader to annotate, however I found that the annotations I made one one device was not synced to another, while the pdf file seems to sync. What might be the issue here and how I could fix this ?

dstillman · December 18, 2023

Are you opening the PDF in Zotero on both devices, or in an external reader on one?

If an external reader, see Annotations in Database.

If the built-in reader, see Changes Not Syncing.

kzssc · December 28, 2023

@dstillman could you confirm, in case of using external reader, that the pdf files (and annotations embed in file) will sync? and if so, at what frequency? on change?

Currently, my attachments edited externally are syncing, but since it's not mentioned on the pages above i'd like to make sure. Too panic to cause another database problem.

edit: understand from https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/highlighting_and_annotating_pdfs that pdfs are indeed synced by zotero, now just waiting for the insight on the mechanism for syncing! :D

dstillman · December 28, 2023

This is explained in Annotations in Database. Not going to get into specifics — the logic is too complicated. It will keep the file in sync, but it can't do so as quickly or efficiently as when you use the built-in reader.

dstillman · December 28, 2023

(To be clear, the complicated logic for externally modified files is about auto-sync. Clicking the Sync button should always check all local files for changes, but that's inefficient and resource intensive.)