Slow to never-ending sync

marc_m
I'm also having problems syncing very small changes (one or two references) -- but only from one of my computers. The other computer syncs fine. The problematic one always takes more than 10x longer (for same # of changes) -- sometimes successfully, sometime not (never ending). I submitted an error report with ID 1076074727.

Thanks for your help,
Marc
  • dstillman
    I see no active syncs for you.
  • marc_m
    Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, it did successfully sync after I restarted Firefox (waited a couple of hours before doing this). I still face the problem that adding one reference and then syncing takes radically different times on my desktop and laptop computers (I've tried this many times): On my laptop, takes a few seconds, always under a minute; On my desktop, it takes anywhere from 5 mins to several hours. Any suggestions on how to fix things for the sync on my desktop? Thanks! Marc
  • dstillman
    You'll have to post when you have an active sync on the desktop so we can take a look.
  • marc_m
    Is there any way to look at previous syncs from today?
  • dstillman
    With considerably more effort. Just post when you're facing the problem.
  • marc_m
    OK. Will do. Thanks. Marc
  • sethlsanders
    Hi Dan,
    I'm having precisely the same problem--been syncing for about 3 hours now. Wonder why so many people are having this happen? Any advice appreciated.
  • dstillman
    There has been very heavy sync traffic since last week. We're preparing a major change to the Zotero server architecture that should be live within the next few weeks and that should greatly reduce sync times.

    No other answer currently than to be patient—anything else you do will make it worse.
  • ecpclio
    I have been trying to sync for hours now on my new laptop connected to my home wireless. My wired desktop seems to sync o.k. Any idea why the difference? It is all the same Comcast line to the house.

    ecpclio
  • ecpclio
    Dan:

    Are you monitoring this? It is really important that I sync with the space I am paying for on the server. It has been several hours now and I cannot get ecpclio to sync with the groups to which I have been admitted.

    ecpclio
  • dstillman
    ecpclio: Read my response above—there's nothing more to say. You have a queued download from 3 minutes ago, which likely means you restarted Firefox, which would have caused you to lose your place in the queue. Don't restart Firefox. We can't do anything to speed this up other than to switch to the new architecture, which we're trying to do as soon as possible.
  • hari471
    My data sync attempts are failing. Debug output has messages similar to:

    Associated libraries are locked — waiting 25000ms before next check

    Is there hope?
  • dstillman
    hari471: Read my posts in this thread.
  • hari471
    Oh, I should wait for a couple of weeks. *ouch*
  • dstillman
    That's not what I said. Be patient and don't restart Firefox, or run a sync at night. The queue is just very long right now.
  • hari471
    It is night in my time zone but thanks anyway. Will try tomorrow.
  • dstillman
    Night Eastern US time.
  • mbakker
    Wow. This is enormously frustrating. I have a manuscript submission due today, with references inserted into Zotero by multiple people on different computers. Syn is not happening.... time to start on the manual formating of citations and bibliography... and maybe delete Zotero while I'm at it.
  • ajlyon
    The sync issues are a priority here, and they will get better. Nonetheless, Zotero syncs have never been instantaneous, and it would be unwise to build your workflow around the assumption that changes on one computer will propagate immediately. The current longer wait times are a recent problem, probably linked in no small part to the start of a new semester and now to the Standalone release.

    For anyone who is trying to use Zotero as a major tool for cooperation within an institution and needs or desires near-instantaneous syncs, it is quite possible for a motivated and technically proficient person to set up an in-house Zotero metadata server to use for syncing; the source is available.
  • dstillman
    For what it's worth, near-instantaneous syncs are certainly the goal, and that's part of the reason we're currently in the process of switching to a completely new server architecture (on Amazon Web Services) that gives us essentially unlimited scaling possibilities.
  • ajlyon
    So much for my most recent attempt to encourage some large institution to take on the job of making private metadata servers a reality.

    But I'm certainly glad to hear that the present sync delays should be on their way out.
  • jgeorgia
    I let Mozilla run for an entire four-day weekend (lucky life I live) and it is still trying to sync. I do not have a huge library. I was hoping to convince professors I work for to use this product, but this level of unreliability is not something I'm keen to put my name behind.

    My humble suggestion, and a possible route to financial viability here, is to bump your paid subscribers to the front of the line. A person like me can only be so mad since I've yet to invest a penny, but if I had plunked down for a Zotero storage account like the poster above and was dealing with these type of wait times, I would be asking for my money back. This is a very helpful product worth paying for (or contributing to, if you'd rather), but only if it works.
  • dstillman
    A four-day wait is impossible. The current worst-case longest sync time for the largest syncs is around 7 hours. You have no queued syncs right now, so restart Firefox if it still shows as syncing. We've never actually reproduced any issue that causes the sync icon to spin without there being an active sync, but it seems to happen to people occasionally for unknown reasons—provide a Report ID in a new thread if you have yet to restart Firefox.

    We're planning to switch to the completely new scalable architecture this weekend. There's really nothing else we can do in the interim—we obviously find the current sync times profoundly unacceptable, but traffic has gone way up since the beginning of this month, and there's no way we can improve times on our current architecture.
  • Chamutal Eitam
    The Debug ID is D999204236.
    Working on a Mac, Zotero is not syncing with my paid library on the server.
    Have been trying for over 2 hours now... Tried restarting, updating, cleaning etc but nothing is happening apart from the green arrow going round and round...
    Help?
  • edpapenfuse
    Dan:

    Let's hope you get the new system in place as soon as possible. I have a seminar of 8 people who should be able to use this shared environment for which I am paying for extra storage, but cannot use because it is taking well over five hours to sync for any of us to participate. Yes, I close out Firefox after a considerable length of time because I do have to leave my office and go home, taking my lap top with me. I can't keep it running on my 45 minute commute from Annapolis to Baltimore (wireless fails). When will the new sync system be in place? This weekend? It is great idea which has an awful lot of Mellon money behind it. I am hoping it is not too long beyond your estimate. Being in place February 1 would be most helpful with my seminar at the U. of Md school of law.

    Ed
  • d.swerdlow@ucl.ac.uk
    I'm experiencing very slow syncing. I've had sync running (I think) a number of times for several hours at a stretch but my online library still says that it's empty. I think something is happening with the sync because some dialogues popped up asking me to shorten the tags on some of my items. Could you possibly advise what might be the problem?
    Many thanks

    Dan
  • dstillman
    d.swedlow: Start a new thread. This thread dates to before the major server architecture upgrade that basically eliminated sync wait times.
This discussion has been closed.