Oh I just want to add that firefox does not freeze during the sync. Indeed I am typing from the browser. It just seem to me a really long time (2 hours and counting) for synching... Please let me know if this is normal for zotero. Also if I close firefox and open it later, will zotero pick up where it's lefted on the sync? Or will it start from scractch?

After reading that the first sync takes a long time, I synced my local library with the Zotero server overnight. Today I made sure that my local library and zotero server had the same content, and they did.

I then tried adding more content and syncing to see how long it would take for the information to upload. There were four new citations with no attachments and they didn't show up on my Zotero website until about three hours after syncing. No errors or freezing or anything, just a really long wait until the citations showed up.

Is this standard? Should I plan for there to be a span of several hours between the time I add something to my library and the time that it shows up in my Zotero.org 'My Library'? Likewise, should I expect that much of a delay when information downloads to a local library after the first time?

I teach Zotero to students at a university and would like to explain what the process is--people get a little wigged out when it takes hours for citations to upload or download. It scares them away from the product.

Thanks for any help you can provide!!

To be fair, I experimented further with downloading from the server to a local library, and it took about 10 minutes, which isn't terrible, although it doesn't make a good impression when demoing to students and faculty. I end up saying 'believe me it really will download.'

The uploading is more of a concern to me, especially in so far as I want to be able to demonstrate how Zotero can be used as a collaborative tool and to make citations public. But I still don't know whether this wait is typical or has something to do with my library/account.

Thanks again!

There were four new citations with no attachments and they didn't show up on my Zotero website until about three hours after syncing.

Given that the max upload wait time yesterday was under an hour for the largest uploads at the busiest time (around 2 p.m. E.D.T.), and less for the rest of the day (down to a minute or two after 6 p.m. E.D.T.), that's pretty unlikely. It's more likely that, like others, you simply didn't notice when one upload stopped and another started. The sync icon doesn't actually stop spinning, but the tooltip in 2.0.3 will show the last sync time at all times.

I know that the arrow doesn't stop, so I kept an eye on my zotero page: https://www.zotero.org/nick/items to see when they appeared. It certainly took longer than an hour. I was guessing that the sync was complete when the records showed up on the 'my library' page.

Is it possible that my sync was completed significantly before it showed up on https://www.zotero.org/nick/items ? Do I need to restart Firefox or log out and back in to www.zotero.org to see the items? I apologize if this is explained elsewhere.

Actually, I placed the four items in a collection in my local library to make them easy to find. The project itself appeared on zotero.org fairly quickly, but it remained empty for a long time. The items only appeared much later.

I think that may be what happened. It went through much more quickly on a second attempt.

Within a library system we frequently have a situation in which available computers already have someone's local library on it. Thus, if I'm working on Zotero in my office and then want to continue to work at the Reference Desk, I have to deal with the fact that a local library that isn't mine is already on it.

In this case I don't want to autosync because somebody else's library will be uploaded to my server space. Is the only option for getting my Zotero library to the local library in this case to Reset by restoring from your server space on the Zotero server, overwriting the local library? Won't this take an extremely long time, like the first time that you sync a large library?

Is it possible to create a new local library on a computer so that there are multiple libraries? That way I don't have to over write the library that is already there but can start from scratch and upload new citations quickly.

No. There are security issues that limit what we can do. Imagine a community where thousands of learners want to be able to add information to their personal database from any of hundreds of public computers quickly and easily. This is what I want Zotero to be able to do.

Refworks manages it because it is entirely server based, but Refworks lacks many of the features that Zotero has. I'm uncertain of whether Zotero's syncing system is robust enough to manage it.