Bought storage but can't sync - can I cancel (or put on hold) storage purchase?

arodrigues
I am very excited about the possibility offered by zotero 2 of syncing my library at home and in the office. My library is 1.5GB so I decided to purchase storage, which at $60/year is a perfectly reasonable price for the luxury of being able to access my pdfs from anywhere in the world. But then I realised I can't sync at all - apparently (according to this thread: http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/8413/syncing-large-collections/#Item_24) because my database (~6000 references) is too big (Report ID: 53509702).

I perfectly understand that these things take time to get sorted, but I am wondering if it is possible to cancel my purchase? Or, even better, to stop the clock on it until the syncing problem is solved? Feels a bit silly to have purchased 5GB of storage for one year and not being able to use any of it...

Many thanks for your advice.
  • dstillman
    Once this issue is resolved and you've managed to sync (which will hopefully be soon), just send a message to support@zot....org and we can extend your storage subscription.
  • arodrigues
    Many thanks, will do!
  • arodrigues
    Still can't sync :-(
    (report ID 1089760190)

    Will keep trying...
  • ajlyon
    Dan has been working on this, judging from commits to the code repository in the last month or so, so progress is being made. I don't have a timeline, but you're not forgotten.
  • arodrigues
    Today I noticed that for a change my sync icon is moving (has been moving for a couple of hours) rather than giving an error. But my settings still say that I am using 0 Mb storage space so I am not particularly confident that something is actually happening.

    Today I also got an email saying that my zotero storage is about to expire because it will now be a year since I got it, and urging me to renew it or else my account will be blocked. Needless to say, I am not going to renew a service that has not worked for me yet. But I would also prefer not to have my account blocked because if so I cannot check if sync is already working. I have replied (cc-ing support@z....org) explaining this.

    I have seen that you are currently doing a major architectural upgrade so I keep my fingers crossed.

    I still think zotero is great, and it will be even greater when synchronisation becomes possible for me as well.
  • arodrigues
    Just for the record, my sync icon has been spinning for 3 days now but still no synchronisation achieved.

    My library continues empty and my storage usage is still 0MB. (I have read elsewhere that synchronisation is all-or-nothing so this is not surprising)
  • dstillman
    It's not possible for a sync to last 3 days (or more than about 6 hours at the absolute worst). You have no active sync right now, I see no record of sync attempts for you, and you still have no items on the server. It shouldn't be spinning.

    1) Before restarting Firefox, check to see if you can provide a Report ID.

    2) Disable auto-sync in the Sync pane of the Zotero prefs.

    3) Restart Firefox. Does the icon show as spinning before you click on it? If so, Firefox isn't quitting completely.

    4) If not, try to sync, and post here.
  • arodrigues
    Thank you for coming back to me Dan, much appreciated.

    Here’s my situation:
    - My Zotero version is 2.0.9, my Firefox is 3.6.13 and I am using Windows XP.
    - My Zotero database has 2.2 GB and 6293 references, I estimate some 70% of them have attached pdfs. Before this episode every time I tried to synchronise I got an error.
    - I could not provide a report ID (nothing in the Actions menu).
    - Icon had indeed been spinning for 3 days (and I hadn’t clicked on it, unless I did it by accident). Hovering over the icon I got “Sync with Zotero Server; uploading data to sync server”. My sync preferences were set to “sync automatically” (with username and password) and “sync attachments in My Library using > Zotero”.
    - Following your instructions, disabled auto-sync and restarted Firefox (and, for good measure, the computer itself). Icon not spinning.
    - Clicked on icon, started spinning, no error, same message when I hover the mouse (“Sync with Zotero Server; uploading data to sync server”). Started at about 3pm Washington DC time. Has now been going on for 20 minutes.

    I will be here for the next 6 hours so will report back on what happens.

    Thank you.
  • dstillman
    edited January 28, 2011
    So on the server you're just getting a database-too-large error, which is still expected at this point, but I'm not sure why that's not translating into an error in the client. We're trying to reproduce it, but you can help by repeating that process (restarting Firefox, etc.) and providing a Debug ID for the first ten minutes of syncing.

    The resulting output will likely be too big to submit, so after ten minutes click View Output, File->Save As to save it as a text file, zip the text file, and e-mail it to support@zot....org with a link to this thread.
  • arodrigues
    Done - thanks!
  • dstillman
    SSL certificate error connecting to sync.zotero.org

    See http://zotero.org/support/kb/ssl_certificate_error for more information.
    This is the error in your latest error report. It indicates a problem on your network. Follow the link for more information.
  • arodrigues
    The error seems to have been a one-off. I've tried 4 more times and continue to get synchronisation without error. And in https://sync.zotero.org I get “Nothing to see here”.

    I still can't save the debug file, but in one (where I let synchronisation run for 6 mins rather than 10) I got this after "sync.zotero.org/upload":


    (3)(+0003044): HTTP POST 4554309 bytes to https://sync.zotero.org/upload?gzip=1 (gzipped from 25770201 bytes; 82% savings)

    (4)(+0095005): Translate: Binding sandbox to https://login.yahoo.com/config/mail?.intl=uk&.src=ym&.done=http://uk.mail.yahoo.com

    (3)(+0000000): Translate: Searching for translators for https://login.yahoo.com/config/mail?.intl=uk&.src=ym&.done=http://uk.mail.yahoo.com

    (4)(+0000004): Translate: Parsing code for unAPI

    (4)(+0000001): Translate: Executed detectCode for unAPI

    (4)(+0000000): Translate: Parsing code for COinS

    (4)(+0000001): Translate: Executed detectCode for COinS

    (4)(+0000000): Translate: Parsing code for DOI

    (4)(+0000001): Translate: Executed detectCode for DOI

    (4)(+0000000):
    Translate: Parsing code for Embedded RDF

    (4)(+0000001): Translate: Executed detectCode for Embedded RDF

    (5)(+0000000): Translate: running handler 0 for translators

    (4)(+0000495): Translate: Binding sandbox to https://login.yahoo.com/config/mail?.intl=uk&.src=ym&.done=http://uk.mail.yahoo.com&rl=1

    (3)(+0000000): Translate: Searching for translators for https://login.yahoo.com/config/mail?.intl=uk&.src=ym&.done=http://uk.mail.yahoo.com&rl=1

    (4)(+0000004): Translate: Parsing code for unAPI

    (4)(+0000001): Translate: Executed detectCode for unAPI

    (4)(+0000000): Translate: Parsing code for COinS

    (4)(+0000001): Translate: Executed detectCode for COinS

    (4)(+0000000): Translate: Parsing code for DOI

    (4)(+0000001): Translate: Executed detectCode for DOI

    (4)(+0000000): Translate: Parsing code for Embedded RDF

    (4)(+0000001): Translate: Executed detectCode for
    Embedded RDF

    (5)(+0000000): Translate: running handler 0 for translators
  • dstillman
    edited January 28, 2011
    Not long enough—it's still uploading in that output.
  • arodrigues
    This time I got this error: Databases of this size cannot yet be synced. Please check back soon. (Report ID: 57318149)

    Ok, I'll keep waiting. Many thanks for your patience.
  • arodrigues
    I got an email from Digital Scholar Renewals saying:

    "Your account is now locked. A locked account will not allow any syncing of new files. If you fail to renew within the next thirty days, your stored files will be deleted."

    Naturally, I don't mind the file deleting as I don't have any files there. And if zotero is still unable to sync databases of the size of mine this does not change anything in practice for me in relation to my current situation.

    But if this means that I can't even *try* to sync, I will never know when zotero is finally able to sync my database. If so I will rely on you to tell me when that's the case, so that I can reactivate my storage account - will you?
  • ajlyon
    You can still sync; the limitation on database size applies to the bibliographic data, which is always free and has no connection to whether you've paid for file storage.
  • arodrigues
    Great - many thanks for clarifying that.

    I will keep trying then, and will sort out the storage issue once sync starts working.
  • prao01
    If I understand this correctly:

    Ajlyon: "You can still sync; the limitation on database size applies to the bibliographic data, which is always free and has no connection to whether you've paid for file storage"

    then even though our group's free account is giving an over-quota message, we can still add and sync bibliographic data, just not PDF files. Is that correct? I've been deleting PDFs and other non-essential information, but I still keep getting the error message.

    Thanks.
  • adamsmith
    yes, that's correct.
  • arodrigues
    Yay, I am now fully synchronised! Thank you for extending my storage subscription, Dan! And thank you to all Zotero developers for a great tool.
Sign In or Register to comment.