Help with file syncing - no Debug ID available

colleen.savage

Hello,

I'm a librarian reaching out on behalf of a client. I found this helpful page when trying to troubleshoot my client's issue https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/files_not_syncing but unfortunately, despite ensuring their Zotero is synced and trying Step 8 to generate a Debug ID, they are unable to open any of their PDFs in Zotero or generate a Debug ID. I have attached the screenshot the client provided me with.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u9661082/aru9ufye4yvka0siop16.png

We work for an institution that doesn't allow us to update to the latest version of Zotero. For example, I am still using version 7.0.7. I have never had issues opening Zotero files, so I don't believe this could be part of the issue but I wanted to include this context in case it is relevant. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

dstillman

7.0.7 is an extremely outdated version of Zotero from October 2024. The last Zotero 7 release was 7.0.32 — and we wouldn't provide support for that either. We can only provide support for the current version of Zotero.

(And regardless, we would need a Debug ID to say more. It's always possible to generate a Debug ID unless Zotero can't make network requests at all, so I'm not sure what you mean there.)

dstillman

(Also, they're using a plugin that specifically changes files from stored files to linked files, which don't sync.)

colleen.savage

Thanks so much dstillman, this is very helpful. I am going to write my institution's IT and see if it is possible that they can approve the latest version of Zotero. To clarify, are you saying that Zotero 7 specifically uses linked files and not stored files? Thanks again.

dstillman

No, the Attanger plugin shown in the screenshot does.

colleen.savage

Thanks very much!