Box.com WebDAV doesn't play nicely

Hi!

I signed up for Zotero yesterday and loaded a couple papers, just to try things out. Everything seemed to be working well.

Today I tried to add a file sync to my Box.com account using https://dav.box.com/dav/zotero/. However, I can't seem to be able to access any of the papers I've placed in Box.com and at least some of the papers in Zotero give the File Not Found error. When I try to point the offending paper to its location in Finder / Box Sync, nothing happens.

I suspect Zotero is still pointing to its own server. In desperation I tried pointing the Linked Attachment Base Directory to my Box Sync. No joy.

To complicate matters, I've also tried to set up Zotero on my iPad using PaperShips.

I've generated an error report ID: 1207069937.

I would be most grateful for any assistance you can provide.

Thank you in advance.

Sebastian
  • take a screenshot of the sync tab of the Zotero preferences, upload it to a free image hosting site, and link to it here.

    If you want to use PaperShip, you want to be using option 2 as described here:
    https://mannlib.cornell.edu/news/link-your-zotero-files-cornell-box
  • In desperation I tried pointing the Linked Attachment Base Directory to my Box Sync. No joy.
    oh, and don't try things you don't fully understand. This just won't do anything, but there are ways in which you can make problems much harder to fix.
  • However, I can't seem to be able to access any of the papers I've placed in Box.com
    What do you mean by this?
  • Hi Adam,

    Thanks for your reply. Here's a link to the sync tab preferences: https://www.dropbox.com/s/15kgfhu8poofgpd/Zotero%20sync%20tab%20preferences.tiff?dl=0.

    Dan: To test the connection to Box, I moved a couple papers from my Dropbox to my Box Sync folder. They are accessible in Box on all my devices. I want to use Box as my Zotero repository as Box gives me up to 10Gb free storage. I thought I had pointed Zotero to my Box account and so expected to be able to see the papers in that folder. One of the papers I had already loaded into Zotero and, when Zotero prompted me to locate the file, I pointed to its location in Box but the connection was never made.

    Thank you both for your assistance.

    Seb
  • your setting are right, but what you describe is not how this works:
    Zotero will upload the files stored in Zotero to box via webDAV. It won't recognize any files you have in Box.

    Where did you have the files previously?
  • At present all my papers are stored in Dropbox.

    I'm fairly certain I'll need more storage than what is freely available from Zotero so just wanted to have a repository that Zotero could point to and that would be accessible from all my devices (using PaperShip).

    In my Box I have the /zotero folder which has several .zip and .prop files. From what you said, it sounds like it could all be working correctly so long as I just keep moving my literature from Dropbox directly into Zotero?
  • From what you said, it sounds like it could all be working correctly so long as I just keep moving my literature from Dropbox directly into Zotero?
    that's right. The way you have sync set up, files stored with Zotero (locally -- i.e. dragged there from anywhere on your harddisk, including dropbox) will sync straight to box. com. You'll never use any Zotero file storage on the server (i.e. the part that's limited to 300MB for free).
  • Sweet!

    Thanks, Adam.
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