missing pdfs

Robsbib
I am working at another computer within my institution, rather than at my desk. I downloaded the Zotero Firefox add on onto this computer, signed in online, and synced. My libraries downloaded, but only some of the pdfs are available. The others have a hollow blue dot, rather than the solid blue dot indicating a pdf is attached, and I am told that the file could not be found. I do not understand why some pdfs are available but not others, nor why, since I am connecting through the same university library, I would not have access. The only thing I could think of was needing to add a saved proxy to the add on. Am I on the right track?
  • adamsmith
    no, those are PDFs saved on the Zotero server, this has nothing to do with access. See here for an explanation and possible troubleshooting:
    https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/files_not_syncing
  • bwiernik
    People in my lab have this confusion quite frequently--the attachments appear (with hollow dot), so they assume that the file is downloaded, even though file syncing hasn't finished. Perhaps a more informative error message telling the user to wait for file syncing to finish would be good?
  • adamsmith
    Agree, that error message, I believe, predates syncing. We should improve/update it. Suggestions?
  • bwiernik
    Something like

    "The selected file is not saved on the local hard drive. Please allow file syncing to finish and try again. If you still receive this message after file syncing has finished without errors, look for more information here: https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/files_not_syncing"
  • adamsmith
    @Dan -- thoughts?
  • aurimas
    Technically more complex, but

    (A) if we're syncing already, Zotero should just prioritize that file and open it asap, displaying some sort of "Please wait while we sync this file to your computer" message until it's opened (with a way to dismiss)

    (B) if we're not syncing, and Zotero is not set up to download on demand, Zotero should say "This file has not been synced to your computer. Would you like to download it?"
  • adamsmith
    A) is good if that's not too hard to do. I don't quite understand B)

    Also, it's possible the file isn't on the server because it hasn't synced up, so we probably can't get around linking to the docs on this.
  • aurimas
    Yes, (B) may fail, which would lead to follow-up guidance ("The file is not available on zotero.org", "You're experiencing network connectivity problems", etc.), but the user might just not have file syncing on, so this would be a convenient way to toggle it on ("as needed" mode).
  • adamsmith
    oh, so you want to nudge people to the file sync prefs on B. How likely is that going to help? They default to on, right?
  • aurimas
    Default to on, right. Idk about the likelihood of this happening, but if we're presenting more meaningful messages about what the issue with the missing file may be, this would be one possibility.
  • adamsmith
    absolutely, but shouldn't our first try be our best "guess" of what's going on? I completely agree with A in that spirit, but I'm wondering if for B) "user doesn't have file sync turned on" is really our best guess at what's going on. I'd guess rather "file isn't on server" is going to be most likely.
  • aurimas
    Well, but for that we would need to check the server and if file sync is off, we don't have permission to do so.
  • adamsmith
    OK, makes sense, so to extend on that:
    (A) if we're syncing already, Zotero should just prioritize that file and open it asap, displaying some sort of "Please wait while we sync this file to your computer" message until it's opened (with a way to dismiss)

    (B) if we're not syncing, and file sync is not turned off, direct user to sync preferences

    (C) if file sync is turned on check if file is on server and re-direct to files not syncing otherwise?

    I'm still wondering though, since this is fairly complex--wouldn't it make sense to go with bwiernik's error message as a stop-gap?
Sign In or Register to comment.