Pictures in notes show as gray squares on other devices

dstillman

This discussion was created from comments split from: When a picture is inserted, it is a gray square..

ethenz

ID:805662232

For me I can insert pictures, but after syncing to the web library, all the pictures are lost (become gray squares). And after testing, I find that pictures are only visible on the computer on which they are added to notes.

The problem still exists after trying with
- all addons off.
- adding pictures to notes directly from the web library (In this case, pictures are only visible from the web library)
- Ubuntu 20.04 instead of Win10
- using a third party syncing software (Syncthing)

Other possiblities I haven't tested yet:
- using tools other than Syncthing (like webdav)
- checking if pictures are not properly stored locally and thus not synced properly

I don't see anything else wrong. I can still jump to the place in the pdf a picture is linked to. It's just all of them turn into a bunch of gray squares after syncing to other zotero applications (or web library).

One thing might be related is, when I check the web library, there is a popup warning me this: Error Received error from Zotero server: Not found. I checked the console of web browser but found too many errors there to get a clue.

Finally, I want to say this should not be a problem if I am only using Zotero on a single pc. But it is actually so excellent that I want to use it on all the tablets and PCs I have access to. Thanks!

adamsmith

How exactly are you using Syncthing with Zotero?

dstillman

@ethenz: It looks like you have file syncing disabled. Images in notes count against your file storage quota, so if you disable file syncing, images won't sync.

ethenz

@dstillman: Sorry for replying late. Following your suggestion, I turned on file syncing. And now it works like a charm. Thank you so much!

In the very first few rounds of syncing, it might not succeed. There are few signs of this (possibly helpful for other people with similar problems):

[removed — D.S.]

And I don't know exactly what triggered a proper syncing. But after a certain moment, I can see pictures from the web library. And then everythings works perfectly. What's left is to replace those gray squares with the correct pictures. Now I can view pictures in notes on all the devices I use!

dstillman

No, please don't do any of that or tell other people to — I've edited your comment so other people don't think they should start messing with the internals of their data directories.

All you need to do is add images to your notes and let it perform a file sync. If that's not working, just report it and we'll look into it.

The iOS app doesn't yet have the new note editor, so gray boxes are expected there.