Mendeley Android Sync Guide

Setting up Mendeley to Sync to Android Device

In this post, I am going to discuss how to set up Mendeley (Reference Manager) to: Organise your references in one folder Sync these references to your Android device I am going to focus on a specific set of tools as these have worked best for me feel free to use alternatives where appropriate. For this guide, I am using the following tools: Mendeley Desktop Reference manager for desktop PC/Mac Referey (Android) - this is the only stable Android client I have found which allows storage/access to local files on your device by translating the location in the Mendeley SQlite file to the location specified on your device (the importance of this will become clear later in the guide). Dropbox free cloud storage agent. I've found it works better thang Google Drive or Skydrive when updating local files and performing 2-way syncing. DropSync great app for 2-way syncing of folders on your device and Dropbox folders.

STEP 1: Organise Content (in the Cloud):

To begin, you should organise all of your pdfs in a single folder (I am using Dropbox for this illustration), which we will later sync to other devices. Mendeley makes this task very easy. 1. In the main Mendeley interface, click on Tools > Options 2. In the pop-up window that appears, click on the "File Organizer" tab.

Figure 1: File Organizer (Mendeley)

Daniel Coakley 2013

Mendeley Android Sync Guide

Here, you will be given the option to organise your library in a particular directory and sort your files into sub-folders given a custom set of criteria. For example, in the above screenshot, my library will be copied in its entirety to "E:/Dropbox/PhD/References" In addition, I have specified the following organisation criteria;

Documents will be organised into sub-folders in the following order: o Journal o Year Documents will be re-named using the specified naming convention: o Author Year Title.pdf

Figure 2: Sample of Result of File Organisation

STEP 2: Sync content to other devices

In order to access your Mendeley library on other devices you will need the following:

Documents (your pdf library, as above) The Mendeley SQlite file (this stores all of the metadata about your pdf library, Jornals, Authors, location etc.) A Mendeley browser

Documents
The first part is fairly straightforward you need to sync your pdf library with your device. For this task, I have found DropSync to be an invaluable tool. Not only does it allow for 2-way file syncing but it can also detect changes on either side (Client <-> Cloud) and automatically update the affected file. 1. From the above section, your library should now be stored on your chosen cloud storage platform (i.e. Dropbox) 2. On your Android device, install Dropsync 3. Open DropSync and click Settings > Synced Folders > Add Synced Folder

Daniel Coakley 2013

Mendeley Android Sync Guide

Figure 3: Dropsync Pro Settings

4. Here, you will need to specify the local folder on your device that you wish to store your references (I have selected a location on the external SD card below). Press Select.

5. In the same manner, specify the remote folder on Dropbox where your references are stored. Press Select.

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Mendeley Android Sync Guide 6. Select Sync Method I am using 2-way sync. In this method "new files and modified files on one side are transferred to the other side". This works the same as the Dropbox desktop client. 7. Enable Sync. 8. Finally, check that your settings are correct (see below).

SQlite file
This is where things get a little more complex Mendeley doesn't like if an external application changes its database.

See here for a guide on how to locate your Mendeley Desktop SQLite file (On Windows 7/8, it's
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Mendeley Ltd.\Mendeley Desktop\ - you can literally copy that string into your address bar in Windows explorer to take you to the location) o If you have not entered an e-mail address into Mendeley Desktop, your database file is

called "online.sqlite". If you have entered your email address, the local database is a file called "yourEmailAddress@www.mendeley.com.sqlite"; for example. You will need to sync this file to your Dropbox Account this can be done using a simple batch file to regularly sync the file to your dropbox. Preferably though, we can use what are known as symbolic links (or rather an advanced type of shortcut). This guide explains how to create symbolic links (also here's some additional information on using the mklink command in cmd) it's pretty straightforward. Once you have hardlinked your sqlite file to your cloud storage account, you are ready to set up a folder-pair on your Device in order to keep this file in sync use the same process here as described in part (A)

Daniel Coakley 2013

Mendeley Android Sync Guide

STEP 3: Referey Configuration

Finally, we are ready to move on to configuring Referey for use: 1. Open Referey App 2. Click on Preferences

3. Click Database path and type in the location of your sqlite file (as per part B) 4. Click PDF folder path and type in the location of your pdf library (as per part A) 5. Ensure you select the correct PDF path level preservation (this will depend on the naming convention you used in locating your pdf library a full discussion can be found here) 6. That's it, you should now have full access to your Mendeley library Any changes made on the desktop will be reflected on your mobile device. I often use the tablet to mark up documents so using Dropsync 2-way syncing, these changes are also immediately reflected on the desktop.

Daniel Coakley 2013