[Zotero 7 Beta] Merging PDF files leaves ghost external annotations

mjthoraval
edited 10 days ago
Steps to reproduce:
1) Select one PDF of an article outside of Zotero
2) Import it a first time in Zotero by drag and drop of the PDF file in My Library, and let it create a parent item: PDF1 in Item1
3) Highlight some text in Zotero on PDF1
4) Import it a second time in Zotero by drag and drop of the PDF file in My Library, and let it create a parent item: PDF2 in Item2
5) Rename Item2 with title "Item2".
6) Highlight some text in PDF2 in Adobe Acrobat Pro
7) Open PDF2 in Zotero to make sure that the external annotation is visible in Zotero
8) Merge Item1 and Item2, selecting the oldest metadata (Item1)
-> Only one PDF file is left in the merged item.
9) Open the PDF file of the merged item in Zotero
-> Only the Zotero highlight of PDF1 is visible
10) Open the PDF file in Adobe Acrobat Pro
-> The external annotation of PDF2 is visible.

Debug ID for the merging (step 7): D1176289403
Debug ID for the whole process: D931504547
Zotero 7.0.0-beta.76+91054acfe (64-bit)
Windows 10
  • arggem
    Does this happen if both PDFs are annotated in Zotero?
  • mjthoraval
    Zotero annotations in 2 different items can be merged correctly.
    The bug is specific to external annotations.
  • AbeJellinek
    Looking into this, thanks.
  • AbeJellinek
    To be clear: Merge will always keep PDF file(s) with external annotations. So even if you select the item that has a PDF without external annotations as the master, the PDF with external annotations will be kept. If both PDFs had external annotations, both PDFs would be kept. The bug is that the external annotation is no longer showing in Zotero.
  • mjthoraval
    Thank you for the clarification on this. Some of the steps described above are probably not necessary to reproduce the bug.

    Note that the bug does not happen if PDF2 contains annotations that are not compatible with Zotero. For example, if you replace step 6 by making a rectangle in Adobe Acrobat Pro. In that case, both Zotero and external annotations are visible at the end.

    If both PDFs have external annotations, merging them into a single PDF requires:
    - Importing to Zotero annotations before merging for annotations that are compatible with Zotero (at least for one PDF)
    - Merge the external annotations in an external PDF reader if the annotations are not compatible with Zotero (cross-out, text, text box, geometrical drawings, free line drawing, ...).
  • AbeJellinek
    If both PDFs have external annotations, merging them into a single PDF requires:
    - Importing to Zotero annotations before merging for annotations that are compatible with Zotero (at least for one PDF)
    Yes, this is by design. Merging doesn't make any changes to the PDFs on disk (until you empty the trash later, if a PDF was deleted in the merge).

    The disappearing annotation issue will be fixed in the next beta.
  • mjthoraval
    Thank you.
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