Annotations made on Ipad not visible on Mac

djunda29

Hi,

I am encountering a problem with synchronisation of annotations on a scanned file. It is a rather large pdf (2gb of scanned notes). I use webdav to synchronise between ipad and mac.

First I uploaded the pdf on ipad and made annotations consisting only of comments and tags. However, when I open the same pdf on macbook m1, I can see the annotations in preview on the right panel of the file but cannot open nor edit them. Even worse, when I open the pdf viewer, the annotations are entirely absent.

Does anyone have any idea how to solve this issue? Is it because the file is too large? If it was the size, I would expect not being able to open the file on mac rather than not being able to access the annotations. Interestingly, I can open the pdf and see all the annotations in Preview program.

Thanks for your help!

dstillman

You're saying you made annotations in the Zotero app on your iPad, or in another app?

Can you reproduce this in Troubleshooting Mode (Help → "Restart in Troubleshooting Mode…”), which temporarily disables all plugins?

Do you see the annotations listed in the Annotations tab of the left sidebar in the Zotero Mac app?

djunda29

Sorry for my belated response.

Yes, I made annotations in Zotero on iPad, and yes, I can see notes and tags in Zotero on Mac but cannot open those notes nor the pdf file. When I click on "show in finder" I get info that the file cannot be found. As if the pdf file in note synchronized between the devices while annotations are but cannot be actively used... I am also attaching a screenshot.

The same happens in Troubleshooting Mode.

Thanks again for your help.


https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u3523172/u8tt0rcl9rx30zj1pye0.png

adamsmith

That just suggests the file hasn't synced successfully, i.e. an issue with your webDAV file sync. As you note, the annotations (which are synced through Zotero) are synced properly (but of limited use, of course, given the absence of the PDF).
See https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/files_not_syncing for troubleshooting.

djunda29

Thank you, I will try to reset the sync history then on the Mac app. If I do that, is there a danger that the file annotated on iPad gets somehow lost?

adamsmith

No

djunda29

I tried resetting the history but get the same error.

Also, I tried sending the annotated pdf file via airdrop from iPad (via "export annotated pdf" function in the reader).
While I can open it in Preview and see the annotations (without tags, of course, just comments), and cannot see any annotation in the file when i open it in Mac Zotero reader. Can I somehow recover the annotations in the uploaded to Mac Zotero in this way?

Or do I need to reset the webDAV? In this case, I fear losing the annotated file from the iPad.

dstillman

You didn't provide the requested info from Files Not Syncing. We can't help without that.

Make sure you're following the steps carefully and performing each step on the correct device.