Erasing Items in Zotero Storage without Erasing Webdav Sync

Hi,

I am out of Zotero storage space (2GB), and I want to delete from that space the 1.2 of My Library, and use the space only for Group Libraries. For a while, I was synchronizing My Library through Zotero, but now I synchronize My Library files through a local WebDav server, so I don't need these files on Zotero storage.

When I clumsily tried to delete a large collection using my account on the Zotero website, it immediately synchronized the deleting action to my Zotero Standalone (I have back ups, and will know do a restore). I was surprised by this, since I was sure that it was synchronizing through the WebDav.

My question is how I can delete the items from My Library from Zotero storage without affecting my actual library?

Apologies if this appears somewhere else, I couldn't seem to find the keywords to find it.
  • Go to https://www.zotero.org/settings/storage and use the "Purge Storage" button at the bottom of the page. Then open your Zotero client on your computer, go to Preferences -> Sync -> Reset, and use the "Reset File Sync History" option. DO NOT use any of the other reset options. Afterwards, perform a full sync.
  • Regarding your confusion, with WebDAV, the files themselves are synced and stored on the WebDAV server, but all the metadata with regards to the file attachments (attachment titles, tags, notes, etc.) are still synced through zotero.org. What you did was delete that metadata, which automatically deletes the files (sort of... I think that file would still be available on WebDAV, but you can't really access it through Zotero interface).
  • Hi,

    Thanks for the instructions and the explanation, that makes sense. I purged the storage, and then I did the Reset File Sync History (this was after I restored the back up). Then I clicked on the sync icon in Standalone. It's still synchronizing, but the first thing that happened was the large collection (called "References") was removed from my standalone. "References" was the collection I stupidly deleted through the Zotero website yesterday.

    I'll wait till after the full synchronization to see what happened, but any ideas how to ensure that collection won't keep being deleted? If everything else is right, should I do a "Restore to Zotero Server" reset from my Standalone?

    Thanks!
  • Update: The "Restore to Zotero Server" worked to restore the "References" collection that I had mistakenly erased. Thank goodness I had a back up. Everything is now how I wanted it, with the Zotero storage space freed up for group libraries. Thanks!
  • Dan, since we're on the topic, I remember that there may be some issues with Restore to Server when groups are involved. Could you comment on that for future reference?
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