Need help with identifying linked file attachments that need to be converted to use absolute paths

nhan000

Hi, I want to move my linked base directory to another folder. I copied the attachments to the new folder and change the base directory in the setting of Zotero to this new location and got this notification: "163 existing attachments were found within the new base directory. 3 existing attachments within the old base directory will be converted to use absolute paths."

Is there a way to know what these 3 attachments are? I have searched around quite a bit but couldn't find a straightforward way to do it. Thank you!

dstillman

Tools → Developer → Run JavaScript:

return await Zotero.DB.columnQueryAsync("SELECT path FROM itemAttachments WHERE linkMode=2 AND path NOT LIKE ? AND path NOT LIKE ?", ['attachments:%', 'storage:%'])

nhan000

Hi @dstillman, could you please elaborate a bit more on what I can do next with the code? Do I need to put the directory of the new folder anywhere in that code?

If I just run the code directly without any modification, it returns a list of 30 attachment absolute paths. I went through all these 30 attachments using Zutilo and didn't see anything abnormal. To clarify, I do store some attachments outside of the Base Directory folder, so these are understandably absolute paths.

dstillman

That returns a list of all the linked-file attachments in your library with absolute paths. You asked how to find files that still have absolute paths after setting a base directory. That's how. I'm not sure what else you're looking for.

nhan000

@dstillman Oh sorry, I haven't set up the new base directory yet. I stopped when I see the notification that I have 3 files that need to be converted into absolute paths and I was wondering if there's a way to know what these 3 files are before I proceed.

dstillman

The point is that those will be the three absolute paths listed within the old base directory after you change it.

nhan000

Got it. Thanks so much for your help! After choosing the new base directory I can see the items that have absolute paths to the old base directory.