Relative path problem

MartinFisher

I use the relative path p:\Library for the location of my PDFs. I have returned to Zotero after not having used it for several weeks and the PDFs are not accessible from within Zotero, which seems to think the relative path is p:\Library\Library, even though it is set in the Prefernces to p:\Library. I don't know how I have managed to create this problem, but does anybody have a suggestion for resolving the matter? With grateful thanks.

adamsmith

That sounds like you could just set the relative path to p: and the links would work, or am I misunderstanding?

MartinFisher

Thank you adamsmith. I am returning to this again as I have been unable to resolve the matter. I'm not sure whether you have misunderstood the problem but setting the relative path to p: does not resolve the matter.

I am still perplexed about how this problem has arisen, and trying to open several PDFs, I see that Zotero is looking for some in p:\Library\Library, some in p:\Library\Library\Library, and even some in p:\Library\Library\Library\Library! The relative path remains set in the Zotero prefernces at p:\Library.

With thanks for any further ideas.

dstillman

No idea how you set those — some third-party plugin? — but you can try unsetting the linked attachment base directory and then setting it again. Zotero has some ability to automatic relink linked files even at the incorrect path.

If that doesn't work, you can use the Zutilo plugin to strip parts from the paths in batch.

MartinFisher

Thank you very much (the only third party plugin I use is Zotfile) . When you refer to 'unsetting th elinked attachment base directory' do you mean set it to absolute paths, and then reset it to P:\Library?

With thanks.

dstillman

Yes.

MartinFisher

Thanks: I have tried this, and it does not resolve the matter. Perhaps the probem is related to the fact that I run two computers, with my PDFs in pCloud? One is Windows, with the library at the relative path P:\Library, and one is Linux with the library at the relative path /home/user/pCloudDrive/Library. Only the PDFs are in the cloud (a few thousand), and this arrangement has previously worked very well for some time. The database (other than the PDFs) is synced from both computers to my Zotero account.

Unless you have any additional thoughts, I will try Zutilo.

dstillman

Perhaps the probem is related to the fact that I run two computers

No, that's the whole point of the Linked Attachment Base Directory setting.

After resetting to absolute paths and re-setting a LABD, opening a file that could be found anywhere within the path you chose generally should've caused it to find the file and prompt if you wanted to relink all similar files, as long as you're running the latest version of Zotero (6.0.23).

But we've never seen anything like what you have ("Library\Library\Library", etc.), and didn't test for that, so if that's not working you should just use Zutilo to correct the faulty paths.