Never-ending sync

mostrander
Hello,

Many thanks to all the Zotero developers for all of the hard work on such a great tool. I couldn't live without it.

I was wondering if I should still be experiencing slow syncing? I've been trying to sync to the Zotero server for several days now. No error messages, just the green arrow circling.

When I hover the the statement is "Uploading data to the sync server". No worries if it will still take some time. I can be patient. But, I've been following some of the other posts in the syncing forum and it appears that other posters are start to see successful syncs where I have not.

Thanks again for Zotero!

mostrander
  • dstillman
    You have no active or recent syncs. Restart Firefox.
  • mostrander
    Thanks for getting back to me Dan.

    Rebooted computer to be sure that Firefox restarted. It's been about 3 hours since the reboot and the green arrow is still spinning. The status statement is "Uploading data to the sync server"

    System information:
    Windows 7 Professional
    Firefox 3.6.13
    Zotero 2.0.9
    WinWord plug-in 3.0b1

    Please let me know if any other info is needed. Still no errors to report.

    Thanks much
  • dstillman
    Still no sign of syncs from you.

    Did you restart Firefox or your entire computer? On Windows restarting Firefox may not enough if there are still firefox.exe processes in Task Manager.
  • mostrander
    I shut down all applications and then restarted the entire computer.

    That was around 7 am this morning, so I've had the green spinning arrow for about 8 hours or so.

    Any suggestions on next steps?

    Thanks again.
  • dstillman
    Disable auto-sync in the Sync pane of the Zotero preferences. Restart Firefox, enable debug output in the Advanced pane of the Zotero preferences, and click the sync icon. Post here when you do, let that go (spinning, presumably) for about 5 minutes, and then stop the debug output, submit it, and provide the Debug ID. Also provide a Report ID.
  • mostrander
    Restarted computer and enabled debug output. Clicked the sync icon.

    Will let it go 5 minutes and will then stop debug output, submit it and provide Debug ID and Report ID.
  • mostrander
    Ok, stopped debug output and tried to submit to Zotero server and received the following message:

    "The server returned an error. Please try again."

    Here is the Report ID: 812645717

    How else can I provide you with the debug output? Also, did not receive a Debug ID. Perhaps because I could not submit to the Zotero server?

    Thanks
  • mostrander
    Forgot to mention, there were 347,187 lines logged for the debug output.
  • mostrander
    Tried saving the debug output as you suggested in this thread:

    http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/16193/sync-has-not-worked-for-several-weeks/#Item_5.

    Firefox started to save the file as a download to my desktop, but did not progress even after several minutes of waiting.
  • dstillman
    Were you doing other things while generating the debug output? If so, clear the output and try again, and this time just let it go for five minutes, since web browsing and other interactions will increase the size of the output.
  • mostrander
    Hi Dan,

    I cleared the output, shut down all applications, and restarted my entire computer. Then, I opened just a single Firefox window and nothing else. Enabled debug output and let it go for only 5 mins. For the first minute, 0 lines logged, then jumped to 346,576 lines and then it stabilized at 346,579 lines after another 30 seconds or so.

    Tried to submit to server, but had same message as before:

    "The server returned an error. Please try again."

    Was able to save it as a zipped txt file. Will email it to you w/ the title as my user name and the report ID. Report ID is 414410894. Didn't get a debug ID though.

    Thanks again for your help.
  • dstillman
    I'm afraid that output is cut off—likely due to a clipboard limit, assuming you tried to copy and paste—though it shows a successful check for modified items on the server. (There weren't any.) It's then shows the beginning of preparing for an upload, but I can't tell you what happens after that.

    If you still have the original output available (or can reproduce), try searching through the output for "/upload" and copying from there down.
  • mostrander
    Hmm, I didn't have the output from last night since I had cleared the output before shutting down my system for the evening. I checked the original unzipped txt file and it was also cut off.

    I redid the debug output this morning as I did last night. I did have a single conflict resolution screen pop up (which I have not had happen for about a week). I accepted/clicked through it and then completed the debug output. Couldn't send the output through the Zotero server so did a File > Save Page As in Firefox. Had same result as last night with the txt file being truncated.

    So I copied and pasted from where the "File > Save Page as" cut off to the end of the debug output into a Notepad txt file. I then zipped the txt file, which I am sending to you.

    Report ID is 432204034; no Debug ID available
  • mostrander
    Hi Dan,

    I double-checked the debug output from this morning as I still have the window open. Here are the last 5 lines or so of the debug output that was generated this morning.

    (5)(+0000340): REPLACE INTO version VALUES ('lastremotesync', ?)

    (5)(+0000001): Binding parameter 1 of type string: "1296558725.3353"

    (5)(+0000028): Committing transaction

    (3)(+0000010): Resetting Notifier event queue

    (3)(+0003225): HTTP POST 4161854 bytes to https://sync.zotero.org/upload?gzip=1 (gzipped from 30139108 bytes; 86% savings)

    There is nothing else after the above line, which I think is what you are looking for, right?

    Thoughts or suggestions for next steps?

    Thanks again for your assistance.
  • dstillman
    How long did you leave the output enabled after that last line? There would be a delay before the next line as the data is uploaded.

    And, to confirm, is the problem still that the sync icon keeps spinning after that?
  • mostrander
    I enabled the output, clicked the sync icon and then let debug output run for 5 minutes. I stopped it after 5 mins, tried to submit to the Zotero server, and had this message.

    "The server returned an error. Please try again."

    When I was running debug output, I noticed that it almost immediately logged 5 lines, then after about 1-2 minute it logged 83405 lines, and about another minute or so later it logged 347758 where it stayed for the remainder of the time.

    And, yes, the sync icon keeps spinning. In fact, it is still spinning from when I started the debug output this morning. It's been spinning continuously for at least a week, and I think longer.

    Hope the additional details help.

    Should I let the debug output run longer?
  • dstillman
    Let it run for longer than 5 minutes after the /upload line, which will be when the line count first stops increasing. (You can click View Output and reload using Ctrl-R to follow along until you see more, though you might see a few unrelated lines every time you do that.) You can actually clear the output as soon as you see the /upload line—we just need what comes after, and it's all the output before that that's causing the output to be too big to submit normally.

    To debug this, we need to see if you're getting a response after the /upload line.
  • mostrander
    Ok, I think I finally had a small success and was able to get a response after the /upload line. Here is what I have:

    (3)(+0023160): HTTP POST 4163058 bytes to https://sync.zotero.org/upload?gzip=1 (gzipped from 30146676 bytes; 86% savings)

    (4)(+0217332): Registering observer for [collection,search,share,group,bucket] in notifier with hash 0E'

    (5)(+0000001): SELECT itemTypeID AS id, typeName AS name, custom FROM itemTypesCombined WHERE display=2

    (5)(+0000001): SELECT itemTypeID AS id, typeName AS name, custom FROM itemTypesCombined WHERE display=1

    (4)(+0001585): Registering observer for [collection,search,share,group,bucket] in notifier with hash Z2'

    (5)(+0000001): SELECT itemTypeID AS id, typeName AS name, custom FROM itemTypesCombined WHERE display=2

    (5)(+0000001): SELECT itemTypeID AS id, typeName AS name, custom FROM itemTypesCombined WHERE display=1

    (4)(+0009036): Unregistering observer in notifier with hash '0E'

    (4)(+0002140): Unregistering observer in notifier with hash 'xy'

    (4)(+0029837): Unregistering observer in notifier with hash 'Z2'

    Hope this helps. Let me know if you need me to run debug output longer.

    Thanks much!
  • dstillman
    No, I'm afraid those are just the lines that show up when you refresh the debug output window.
  • mostrander
    Ok, I ran debug output again as described above, this time for 45 mins. I don't think I obtained any new information. Here are the last lines of code after the /upload.

    (3)(+0003098): HTTP POST 4163055 bytes to https://sync.zotero.org/upload?gzip=1 (gzipped from 30146676 bytes; 86% savings)

    (4)(+1060277): Registering observer for [collection,search,share,group,bucket] in notifier with hash 2u'

    (5)(+0000001): SELECT itemTypeID AS id, typeName AS name, custom FROM itemTypesCombined WHERE display=2

    (5)(+0000001): SELECT itemTypeID AS id, typeName AS name, custom FROM itemTypesCombined WHERE display=1

    (5)(+1652750): SELECT version FROM version WHERE schema='lastlocalsync'

    They look similar to what I posted above.

    I can let debug output run for longer (overnight?), but I'm not sure if this will help.

    My issue seems similar to what is described in this thread:

    http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/16193/sync-has-not-worked-for-several-weeks/#Item_5.

    But, I don't know if this issue was ever resolved either.

    Please let me know if there is anything further I can do to troubleshoot. Is this an appropriate time to consider reinstalling Zotero?

    Thanks again
  • dstillman
    No need to reinstall Zotero. It wouldn't help.

    This likely indicates a problem with your network, with the upload either getting interrupted or proceeding extremely slowly. An interrupted upload should technically produce an error message in Zotero.

    If you're willing to upgrade to the 2.1 beta, I can add some debugging information to the latest dev build to provide more status info on the upload. Otherwise you'd probably need to talk to your network administrator, who could look into whether data was actually being uploaded and/or why you weren't receiving a response.

    I see an upload from you from about an hour and a half ago (which should have produced an error message on your end), and nothing since.
  • mostrander
    I'd better check with my network administrator then. Not sure what they'll do since I work remotely out of my home office, but I'll give that a shot.

    I'm a bit reluctant to upgrade to 2.1 beta. I'm responsible for training a group of 15-20 people within our company and getting them to use Zotero by June. It might be difficult if I'm on 2.1 beta and everyone else is on 2.0. I'd like to think about this for a while before committing.

    Hope you don't mind me asking another question. Would it make a difference if I unenrolled myself from a group library that I am a member of, but never use? Then, I'd only have to sync my local library.

    Thanks again for your assistance and suggestions.
  • dstillman
    edited February 1, 2011
    Being a member of a group library shouldn't make a difference in this case, as it's an upload problem.

    I don't know offhand how to check network traffic in Windows 7, but if I recall correctly it was possible in XP by using Performance Monitor (in Start -> Accessories -> Administrative Tools or something similar). You can try playing with that or ask your IT folks for help. Then you'll at least be able to see if the upload is actually progressing.
  • mostrander
    Thanks very much for that info. That will be helpful when I talk to them.
  • mostrander
    Hi,

    Have an update on this discussion thread.

    Finally achieved a sync with the Zotero server. My IT folks removed me from some Group Libraries that I do not use or need and I had a successful sync w/in 15-20 mins. I am now using my individual account since I am not collaborating on any projects that require use of Group Libraries.

    Thanks again for the assistance.
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