Lost all my PDFs?

majosearosemena · 2026-01-28T18:08:07+00:00

I switched computers a while ago, downloaded Zotero in the new one and started looking for new articles, saving them using the Zotero connector extension. I didn't need any of the articles I had saved before, until now. But now I cannot open any of the previous PDFs. And there are no PDFs from those articles in my web library. From what I understand, it is possible that when I was using my previous computer I reached the max level of storage and the PDFs started being saved on a local folder. Unfortunately, I do not have that computer anymore. All the solutions I have seen include using computer A. Because the PDFs were apparently saved in a local folder that was not synced with my OneDrive cloud, I think this means I have lost all of them. 625 PDFs. I might be looking for a miracle, but I wanted to ask:

1. Is there another way to recover those PDFs? I have always used the Zotero Connector extension, so I was thinking maybe Zotero stores the PDFs somewhere else in addition?
2. If I have lost everything - is there a fast way of finding and downloading the PDFs from all the titles I have?

Thank you

adamsmith · 2026-01-28T18:15:24+00:00

When you say there are no PDFs -- are you not even seeing a PDF icon or are you just unable to open the PDF. Because if you ever had a PDF for an item attached it would have that attachment, even if you can't open it on an unsynced machine.

For your question:
1. No, Zotero only saves files locally and then syncs them provided file sync is enabled and enough space available.

2. Right-click --> Find Full Text on the item. That would require a DOI or URL and only works/exists if there isn't already a PDF attached to an item.

majosearosemena · 2026-01-29T17:02:26+00:00

Hi, thank you. I can see the PDF icons of all of them. "Find full text on the item" doesn't show up, probably because it shows like I already have it, even if I can't open it.