Files and Folders Gone

syannarell409 · January 23, 2023

I am a new Zotero user. Documents that appear in my library and were once accessible are now move or deleted. The message that pops up says, "The attached file could not be found at the following path: (file location on C drive is described). It may have been moved or deleted outside of Zotero, or, if the file was added on another computer, it may not yet have been synced to zotero.org." Some of the files can be found if I go to the library at zotero.org, but not all those that are listed. The easy answer would be the files were somehow deleted, but I'm looking for some other possible causes.
Thanks, Steve

dstillman · January 23, 2023

If the file isn't available in the web library, it means it was never uploaded (e.g., because file syncing was disabled or the group owner was at their file storage quota). If you're positive you could access the exact same file previously on this computer (which would only be the case if you yourself added the file), it could mean that it was never uploaded from your computer and was somehow deleted outside of Zotero, but that's much less likely than the file simply being added on another computer and never uploaded. See Files Not Syncing — the person who added the file will need to fix their syncing.

syannarell409 · January 24, 2023

Thank you. We will look into that.