Unsure whether syncing has been reliable. What to do?

Pro MHI Africa
Hi, I encounter a problem while syncing which makes me doubt whether syncing has been reliable.

What is the problem?:
There are two computers and one group library.
So far, all changes to the group library were done from Computer A.
Computer B only "received" the group library, but has not made any changes.

Computer A and the Zotero server have 1748 entries, but Computer B has 1749 entries. (The computers had enough time to sync with each other as I tested it on different days).

Because the difference is only 1 entry, I made a test: I exported the bibliography with the same citation style on both computers and compared the resulting documents in OpenOffice. Apparently, there are many small differences. Apparently, the difference is not only 1 single entry.

What shall I do? I am asking, because I plan to invite some other colleagues into this group, but I am unsure whether syncing will work properly.

[If you would suggest to reset the library on one of the computers, I would still have this question open: http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/14298/how-to-resetrestore-fromto-zotero-server-by-treating-group-and-private-library-different/#Item_1]
  • adamsmith
    what types of differences are we talking about?
    Obviously this shouldn't happen, but it's impossible to address without more detail.

    My initial reaction would be that it's unlikely for sync to insert small differences into a database. It might break or screw up data completely, but small change seem much more likely to be due to human activity.
  • Pro MHI Africa
    Hi adamsmith, thank you for your quick reply. While compiling the errors for you, I realized that my test was not perfect**. However, after thoroughly comparing the two bibliographies there are still three differences that were not synced during at least one week. There were some changes made to Zotero after these three and strangely they were synced correctly. Here are the three errors that still did not sync:
    * One double entry was deleted on computer A, but is still twice there on computer B. (Loewe 2009, The third way to social protection...)
    * One mistake in an author name was corrected on computer A, but still has not changed in computer B (Kent Ranson, M. -> Ranson, Kent M.)
    * One author name was corrected about a week ago in computer B, but was still wrong in computer A (Culter -> Cutler). That was actually the only change that was made on Computer B.

    By the way: Computer B tells me that "Last sync: 2 seconds ago".




    ** Side note to my test: Apparently Linux and Windows sorts bibliographies differently and also the same citation styles seems to handle weblinks different. Hence, I had a thousand differences in my comparison of the two bibliographies.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    And what's the last sync time on Computer A?

    You'll need to look at the libraries online and include information on the state of the items in question there as well. It would also be helpful if you would right-click on the items, select Generate Report from Selected Items, and include the strings at the end of the URLs, which should look like 0_B2CA57FV or 23526_B2CA57FV.
  • Pro MHI Africa
    Computer A also says that the last sync is a few seconds ago.

    I would like to add this information: A few minutes ago, I added ten new entries on computer A and they are already perfectly synced on computer B.
    However, the three errors as mentioned above are still incorrect on computer B.

    Here are the reports on the three selected items as requested:

    253257_3PWG6EMV
    253257_CTJA23DT
    253257_U7XQXTRF (this third one was the error, where I made changes on computer B and also on computer A. So this third report might be misleading)
  • Pro MHI Africa
    Looking at the items on the webpage gives a strange picture to me:

    As you know, everything on computer A is perfect. On the Zotero server it is different:

    „Loewe“ is okay, exactly the same like on computer A. No double entry on the server, perfect there (item number 147802235). Problem is only on computer B
    „Ranson“ is wrong on the server and different from computer A. The entry on the server is wrong like on computer B: „Kent Ranson, M.“ (item number 147802142)
    „Cutler and Reber“ is correct on the server as it is on computer A and B (I corrected this one manually today on computer A where still was „Culter“), (item number 147801653)
  • Pro MHI Africa
    I manually corrected the three inconsistencies and since then no other inconsistencies occurred. Everything works fine. I think you can mark this thread as "SOLVED". Thank you.

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