Some stored PDF attachments fail to copy from My Library to a Group Library

rdeuber

Hi,

I'm using **Zotero 7.0.32** on **macOS Sequoia 15.7.7**.

I have encountered a strange problem when copying items from **My Library** to a **Group Library**.

### Group configuration

* Group type: **Public, Closed Membership**
* I am the **owner** of the group.
* File editing is enabled.
* File sync is enabled for both My Library and Group Libraries.

### Problem

When I drag items from **My Library** to the Group Library:

* the bibliographic item is always copied successfully;
* however, only **some** PDF attachments are copied;
* other PDF attachments are silently omitted (no error message).

### What I have verified

* The attachments are **stored files**, not linked files ("Show File" is available, not "Show Linked File").
* The PDFs are correctly synchronized and available online in **My Library**.
* The same PDF files open normally.
* The PDFs are stored in the Zotero storage directory.
* The problem occurs only with some attachments.

### Important observation

If I drag the **same PDF file from Finder** onto the item in the Group Library, it uploads immediately and works perfectly.

Therefore:

* the PDF file itself is valid;
* the Group Library accepts PDF uploads;
* the problem seems to affect only some existing attachment records.

### Additional information

* Both working and non-working attachments were originally imported using the **Firefox Zotero Connector** from **Google Scholar**.
* I exported both a working and a non-working item as **Zotero RDF** and compared them. I could not find any meaningful difference in the attachment metadata.

Has anyone seen this before?

Is there a way to rebuild or repair these attachment records without manually deleting and reattaching every affected PDF?

Thanks very much!
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    Old versions aren't supported, so you'd have to upgrade to Zotero 9 to start.

    Beyond that, note that the file currently has to exist locally at the time of the copy. If you're using "as needed" file-download mode or the file otherwise doesn't exist locally — with a grayed-out attachment icon — then you'd have to open it locally first to force a download before you can copy.

    Also note that items you've dragged previously aren't replaced, so you'd have to delete the file-less target item and drag again to copy the file properly.
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