Can't automatically find PDFs but can add them manually from Zotero Storage

hoptman

Hi, I recently got a new computer. I do not have enough space on my online account to store all the ones I have (c. 18,000).

However, I'm having a problem with finding the files within my local storage (set to be in the normal place (c:\users\<username>\zotero\storage). I can add them manually from the 8-character file directories by dragging them into Zotero, but for obvious reasons, I don't want to do that for the whole set.

I don't think it's my database file, but I did have move it around a few times. It doesn't show up as corrupted, as best I can tell.

Is there a way to automate this? I'm using Zotero 8.0.3.

Thanks,
Matt

dstillman

I'm not sure what you mean here. What do you mean by "having a problem with finding the files within my local storage"?

Can you provide steps to reproduce?

hoptman

So the steps are:

1) open Zotero desktop app (Windows 11)
2) look for pdfs within my default library
3) see only a fraction of them within Zotero library
4) go into each 8-character directory name in Windows explorer
5) drag pdf into Zotero (which it then reads correctly). But I can't do that manually for all of them.

I hope this helps. I have attempted to attach a screenshot, which I am hoping you'll see, but it just lists the references from the center pane of my Zotero instance (columns are Creator, Title, Year, Publication, Date Added, and "Attachment clip").

Thanks!

dstillman

Screenshots would really be helpful. You can drag them into the textbox here.

But what do you mean by "see only a fraction of them within Zotero library"? As in, you don't see the attachment items in Zotero at all, or you try to open them and you get an error that the files can't be found?

You're at your storage quota, so if you transferred your data from another computer by syncing, you definitely would have attachments that couldn't be opened, since they never would've been uploaded to our servers to begin with.

You can upgrade your storage or transfer your Zotero data manually.

If you're not seeing the attachment items at all, there's some other problem. The attachment entries would sync from the other computer regardless of whether you have storage space to sync the actual files. But we'd need to see some screenshots, including the actual 'storage' folder names and what you're seeing in Zotero, to say more.

hoptman

Hi dstillman,

I can see only about 1,576 of the pdfs within the Zotero app. Most of these I have added manually (by dragging and dropping) in the past day because when I tried to read the directory without doing that, I would see very few references, but that was torture. I do wonder if it's a problem with the database file, but my gut tells me that the files in the 8-character directories are not being mapped to the database file. Maybe that's it? Is there a way around it?

Within the Zotero Storage directory, I see 29,081 entries (8-character directory names generally containing a .zotero-ft-cache file, a .zotero-ft-info file, and the PDF itself. Some of them contain a .zotero-ft-unprocessed file and the pdf, but neither of the other .zotero-ft-* files).

In the past, I pretty much would see all of the references in the database without having to do any manual dragging-and-dropping them (unless it was a new reference). Of note, the zotero.sqlite file is 1,793,176KB.

Here is the screenshot:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u1095346/v7qrvcqb6v0spdvk54z4.png

hoptman

And here are pictures of the Zotero Storage and individual PDF subdirectories.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u1095346/0zljswpes95ig4xlo9ym.png
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u1095346/4py20bowi2fcle1c7frj.png

adamsmith

See the note about manually transferring your database -- it seems like you either didn't do this or did it incorrectly.

Definitely don't import PDFs from your storage folder like you've been doing.

hoptman

Thanks. I see all the files in the Zotero Storage directory. Should I delete them and recopy them?

hoptman

PS. I gather I can leave the Zotero/storage subdirectories that are already visible within the App.

adamsmith

You need to read that more slowly. The key part is making sure either your database is synced via the Zotero servers or to manually carry over the zotero.sqlite containing the actual database. The files are just... files; they don't appear in Zotero without the database linking to them.

hoptman

That seems to have done the trick. Thanks so much!!