Upgrade StorageMissing PDFs in collection, replaced by CSV files in storage folders
Hi everyone,
Many PDFs in one of my library collections have suddenly disappeared. Although the PDF icon is still visible next to the items, trying to open them triggers a window with the option to “Locate” the file.
When I click “Locate,” Zotero opens the specific subfolder inside the local Zotero/storage directory, but the PDF is missing. Instead, there are only CSV (Excel) files with different titles in those folders. I have searched my entire Mac, but the missing PDFs cannot be found anywhere.
Here is what I have checked so far:
- Sync Settings: They appear to be correct, and my institution provides unlimited storage, so space is not an issue.
- Zotero Web Library: The PDFs are also missing from the browser version, not just locally on my Mac.
I am very frustrated because many of these documents had already been carefully read, annotated, and highlighted. This represents a significant investment of time, and these files are crucial for my current and future research.
I noticed in the forum history that other users have reported similar issues over the years. Is there a known bug or gap in the synchronization process? Honestly, this makes me hesitant to continue using Zotero if data can disappear like this after so much effort.
Any help on how to recover these files or fix this issue would be greatly appreciated.
Many PDFs in one of my library collections have suddenly disappeared. Although the PDF icon is still visible next to the items, trying to open them triggers a window with the option to “Locate” the file.
When I click “Locate,” Zotero opens the specific subfolder inside the local Zotero/storage directory, but the PDF is missing. Instead, there are only CSV (Excel) files with different titles in those folders. I have searched my entire Mac, but the missing PDFs cannot be found anywhere.
Here is what I have checked so far:
- Sync Settings: They appear to be correct, and my institution provides unlimited storage, so space is not an issue.
- Zotero Web Library: The PDFs are also missing from the browser version, not just locally on my Mac.
I am very frustrated because many of these documents had already been carefully read, annotated, and highlighted. This represents a significant investment of time, and these files are crucial for my current and future research.
I noticed in the forum history that other users have reported similar issues over the years. Is there a known bug or gap in the synchronization process? Honestly, this makes me hesitant to continue using Zotero if data can disappear like this after so much effort.
Any help on how to recover these files or fix this issue would be greatly appreciated.
If files were ever uploaded to Zotero servers, they would be available in the web library unless you used Purge Storage in My Library from your storage settings page. There's no other way for them to be removed.
If you provide some screenshots of what you're actually seeing, we might be able to say more, but this mostly seems like some sort of misunderstanding.