Recommendations for a WebDav service?

bradco · December 19, 2010

I'm moving from old Win XP systems to new Win 7s within a week or so. As a syncing client, have been using the former FolderShare, now called Windows Live Sync (WLS), ever since Zotero 2.X. Despite the warnings, I'm religious about one Zotero open-at-time. I've not had a data corruption problem & have found that WLS is something MS does right: robust & reliable. A new iteration of WLS is coming up: MS Live Mesh 2011, and WLS will be dismantled soon. Now, I'm not ruling out Zotero File Storage (the documentation mentions advantages over WebDav). Nor have I tried a "WebDav Service." Can users recommend a WebDav to look at more closely ? Secure option (https) would be highly desireable. Thanks in advance.

adamsmith · December 19, 2010

if you don't care about the dangers of syncing and you really only ever have one copy of Firefox (not Zotero!) open, look into dropbox, which, if I understand WLS correctly, does the same and is free up to 2GB.
http://amusicology.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/how-to-avoid-usurious-rates-for-online-zotero-storage/
But for everyone else - really, really do this at your own risk and back up frequently, and preferably, don't do it at all. It's your effing research data. Think about how you'd feel if all your work on your database went to hell. It's not worth the risk.

With a little extra tool you can also use drobox as a WebDav
http://gettinggeneticsdone.blogspot.com/2010/12/sync-your-zotero-library-with-dropbox.html
(to clarify - WebDAV sync is supported by Zotero and doesn't have the risk of database corruption. It doesn't have some of the features of files storage for technical reasons).
Other WebDAV recommendations here:
http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/14130/recommended-webdav-services/

bradco · December 20, 2010

I appreciate the useful reply above. I looked closely at the thread (above) of people having to replace WebDavs & trying to test low-cost WebDavs. Also note that DropBox requires another tool. Zotero File Storage may be the best solution after all for straightforward, seamless, safe syncing. If $20/year for 1 GB will not only pay for storage, but also help support this excellent research & site archiving tool, why not? I've *donated* that much & more to other free sites/software that do great jobs.