EndNote Online: Synchronize

Once you have created an Endnote Basic account you can easily synchronize it with the Endnote library installed on your computer.

The first time you synchronize Endnote and Endnote Basic you will be asked if you want to create a compressed copy of your library as backup.  It is highly recommended that you do so, in case problems occur with the synchronization.

To set up synchronization:

1.  Click the Sync button in the toolbar (or select Sync from the Tools menu).
2.  Logon to your Endnote Basic account. Click OK to begin the synchronization process.
3.  Depending on how large the library is, the synchronization may take some time.  For the first synchronization, Endnote copies all references in each library to the other.  This may result in duplicates if references are in both your desktop and online libraries - these can be removed later.
4. Custom groups, including file attachments, will sync to Endnote Basic but group sets, smart groups, and combination groups will not. Groups in Endnote Basic will sync to your desktop library and appear in the Unfiled group set.
5.  It is important that groups in both your desktop and Web libraries do not have the same name to avoid confusion once the sync is complete.  Groups that appear in both locations can be merged. If the group in Web has sharing options, leave them on.  After the sync select the appropriate group in the Unfiled group set and move the references from the desktop group to here. The original group will be empty and can be deleted.  The merged group can then be moved into the proper group set.

If a conflict occurs, the term Sync Conflict will appear in the desktop Groups panel.  This happens when editing a reference in either the desktop or Web libraries during the synchronization, and Endnote does not know which one to keep.  Select the group to open the Resolve Sync Conflicts dialog and remove the conflicts.

After the initial synchronization, you can set the Sync preferences by going to Edit>Preferences>Sync.