I have been unable to resolve my issues with plugins (or remnants of uninstalled plugins) potentially contributing to the syncing and other instabilities I've been seeing. One of the plugins I used in the past modified the Zotero database (I didn't know that at the time)...

So I decided the best way forward is to bite the bullet and start with a clean install, and sync down from my online database (thank goodness for unlimited storage).

The sync has been going for more than 8 hours, and has done about 7,000/17,400 records -- all without attachments. Is this normal? Will my attachments sync once all the records have been created? How long can I expect the process to take?