Zotero 1.5 Sync Preview is under active development and is not yet feature complete. Data loss could occur at any time while using the Sync Preview, and we strongly encourage you to use it only with a separate test copy of your Zotero library.

Use of the new Word plugins will irrevocably upgrade your documents, and you will no longer be able to use them with Zotero 1.0.7 or earlier.

We are excited to announce the launch of Zotero 1.5 Sync Preview, which introduces a powerful slate of new features, including:

• Automatic synchronization of collections among multiple computers. For example, sync your PC at work with your Mac laptop and your Linux desktop at home.
• Free automatic backup of your library data on Zotero’s servers.
• Automatic synchronization of your attachment files to a WebDAV server (e.g. iDisk, Jungle Disk, or university-provided web storage).
• Support for Endnote® export styles (temporarily disabled).
• A new style manager allowing you to add and delete CSLs and legacy style formats.
• Automatic detection of PDF metadata.
• Automatic detection and support for proxy servers.
• Preliminary support for local sharing of collections through Zeroconf on OS X. Other platforms and full support to come with the final release of Zotero 1.5.

Zotero 1.5 Sync Preview requires Firefox 3. It is not compatible with Firefox 2.

Because Zotero 1.5 Sync Preview will make irreversible changes to both your database (zotero.sqlite) and your attachments directory (zotero/storage), you should work only with a copy of your Zotero library.

With Firefox closed, make a copy of the “zotero” folder from the Firefox profile of your existing Zotero 1.0.7 installation. For the moment, just remember where you are keeping the copy.

Now launch Firefox 3 from the command line with the -ProfileManager flag and create a new profile (e.g. “Sync Testing”). For more information on how to start and use the profile manager, please see Mozilla's Managing profiles page.

After you've created the new profile, close Firefox 3, navigate to the new profile's directory, and place your copy of your “zotero” folder here.

Tip: Store a zipped copy of your “zotero” folder in your Firefox profile directory. If you need to reset your library quickly, you can simply delete the “zotero” folder and then unzip the zipped copy.

Open Firefox 3 using the new profile and install Zotero 1.5 Sync Preview 2.2.

If you don't already have a Zotero forums account, please create one. For Zotero 1.5 Sync Preview, you'll need to use your forums login and password to access the Zotero server.

Enter your Zotero forums username and password in the Sync pane of the Zotero preferences. Please note that this method of authentication is only temporary and may not reflect the method that will be used when 1.5 ships publicly.

As you make changes to your library (add, edit, and delete items), those changes will be automatically synchronized with the Zotero server. The first time your Zotero library syncs, Firefox may appear to hang, especially if you have a large library.

While testing Zotero syncing, it is possible to observe the process “behind the scenes” by running Firefox from the command line with the console open and debug output enabled. However, if you're running Windows, running with the console open will severely degrade performance and is therefore not recommended.

Note: Some syncing functionality is not yet implemented. Please see our known issues page for Zotero 1.5 Sync Preview.

If your service has an SSL certificate that requires whitelisting via Firefox before you can use it with Zotero, you can load that URL in Firefox, accept the certificate permanently, and then return to Zotero. You should only have to do this once.

Zotero doesn't handle redirects for WebDAV—you need to enter the final destination URL.

Once you have set up one computer to work with Zotero 1.5 Sync Preview, you can access your library from any computer with Zotero 1.5 Sync Preview installed.

On another computer, install Zotero 1.5 Sync Preview into Firefox 3 and add your Zotero forums username and password information as indicated above.

Click the Zotero sync icon to initiate automatic synchronization of this computer with your Zotero server account. As you make changes to your library (add, edit, and delete items), those changes will be automatically synchronized with the Zotero server.

Whenever you begin work on another, synchronized computer, click the sync icon to make sure your library is up to date. Zotero will also attempt to synchronize your library whenever you first open the Zotero pane after starting Firefox.

Before reporting any bugs or problems, please consult the list of known issues.

To provide helpful bug reports, you generally must be running Zotero with debug output enabled, as this will allow you to follow the syncing process and view client and server errors.

All bugs should be reported in the Sync Preview forum.