Can I store everything in a Group Library?

konstantinos_29

Hi to all,

I have Zotero Storage Unlimited and I want to share my bibliography & attachments (ca. 100GB) with my collaborators in one group library, so that we can all edit them together. From what I read in the forum, the automated syncing between the group library and the private library is currently not possible.

My question is: can I disable the local data directory and keep my whole library only on the Zotero Storage without having a local copy of it?

dstillman

(I'm assuming by "local data directory" here you mean the "storage" directory. The local Zotero database, which is also in the data directory, is necessary for Zotero to function.)

If Zotero File Storage sync is set to download files only "as needed" in the Sync pane of the prefs, you and other group members won't need to keep the whole set of files locally. There's not currently any way within Zotero itself to delete downloaded (or locally added) files, though, so you'd have to manage that yourself, for example by doing a search for PDFs within the 'storage' directory. In the future Zotero may offer ways to delete the associated local files from within Zotero or to keep it to a certain amount of disk usage by removing non-recently-used files (while keeping the attachment items in place so the files can be redownloaded).

konstantinos_29

Hi Ben,

thank you very much for your reply.

I changed the Zotero File Storage sync to "as needed", as you suggested.

Just to be sure. Now, if I delete manually the PDF files in the storage directory on my computer, and then sync again, the PDFs that are already in my private library and the group library on the Zotero server will not be deleted. Am I right?

dstillman

That's right, as long as you delete the actual files on disk, not the attachment items in Zotero. And you'd want to double-check that those files were in fact on the Zotero servers by making sure you can view them on zotero.org. They should be there if you've synced, of course, but occasionally people run into glitches.

dstillman

Also note that you don't want to delete the subdirectories within 'storage', just the PDF files themselves. The subdirectories can contain files for full-text searching, even if they appear to be empty (which I think varies by OS).

konstantinos_29

Thanks Dan!

konstantinos_29

I uploaded my whole local library onto Zotero Storage and I manually deleted all PDF files from my computer. Now everything is on the Zotero Storage and I download the attached file "as needed". An empty blue circle is visible next to the library item.

So far so good.

Now I want to copy all items from my Local Library into a Group Library (I am the owner). When I drag and drop them, everything is copied and I also see the empty blue circles next to the items. But when I double click on one of them to open the attachment a window with the following message appear "The attached file could not be found..."

When I download the attachment in my Local Library and then copy it to the Group Library, then the attachment opens without any problem.

Does this mean that I have to download all attachments again in my Local Library, then drag and drop everything to the Group Library, and finally delete again all PDF files from my computer?

hannatuomisto

I encountered a similar problem, even though I have all the pdfs stored on my computer. When I copied a collection folder from my library to a group library I own, the attachment items that are visible in the reference list were copied over, but the actual pdfs were not (filled blue circles in my library became empty blue circles in the group library).

So when I try to open the pdf in the group library, I get error "The attached file could not be found...". The "Locate" button in the error message of course allows me to navigate to the corresponding file and copy it to the group library, but this is not practical as there are hundreds of pdfs to deal with.

If I copy the items from my library to the group library one by one rather than inside collection folders, then the attachments seem to go along and can be opened in the group library. But I am not able to drag the pdfs from my library to the group library as long as the corresponding parent item exists in the group library.

Is there a more elegant solution to getting the pdfs to the group library than deleting all the items that are already in the group library and then copying them back again with the pdfs in place?

adamsmith

Is there a more elegant solution to getting the pdfs to the group library than deleting all the items that are already in the group library and then copying them back again with the pdfs in place?

unfortunately not currently, no.

I have no explanation for what happened while dragging the collections, though, that should work just fine.

hannatuomisto

OK, thanks. I tried dragging entire collections again, and this time it worked.

dstillman

Does this mean that I have to download all attachments again in my Local Library, then drag and drop everything to the Group Library, and finally delete again all PDF files from my computer?

Yes. If you drag an attachment with a missing file to another library, the file itself won't be added to the other library. It's possible we could fix that, but that's the way it works now.

bwiernik

With a setup like hannatuomisto, is it possible to update the attachment icons in the middle pane (blue circles) so that they accurately reflect when an attachment has been deleted locally?

dstillman

bwiernik: I don't follow. The blue circles should always reflect the presence of the file for that particular attachment.

Baltimore

I do not understand how to copy items from "My library" to the Group Library. Can someone please tell me the steps? I've looked at the documentation and can't figure out how to do it. Thanks much Holly

adamsmithpresentatio

The relevant documentation is here, though it's admittedly rather sparse:
https://www.zotero.org/support/groups#interact_with_groups_through_the_zotero_client
If that doesn't help you, please start a new thread (red "Start a New Discussion" button at the top left).