Report ID: 1057641672

c7fung

Hi,

Error seems to appear only when trying to sync when 'Sync full-text content' is selected under Zotero Sync Server settings.

Double clicking any item with a snapshot or pdf link does nothing. Right clicking and 'View Online" works for snapshots, "View PDF" does not work for PDFs, but "Open in External Viewer" works. Google Books Link works fine.

Unselecting the option will enable it to successfully sync however the above issue remains.

I have a desktop and a laptop sharing pdf links on OneDrive via ZotFile. Symlinks are also on both machines that point to the Zotero storage folder located on OneDrive. This only occurs on the laptop when it did not create the entry. Any entry and links the laptop creates can be accessed by the desktop.

One last thing, correct me if I'm wrong, but with 'Sync Automatically' enabled any changes to the library should automatically trigger a sync? This does not happen at all on either machines.

Thanks

dstillman

What's the issue that you're reporting?

https://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_problems#provide_steps_to_reproduce

c7fung

The error is produced when I press sync. The sync does not happen.

The error is:
Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIFileInputStream.init]

It seems to have to do with the 'Sync full-text content' option. I don't get the error when that option is not selected. However these other issues still persist and I believe are related.

Thanks,

dstillman

There's a good chance that's due to security software on your system interfering with Zotero's ability to access the disk. Try temporarily disabling your security software.

c7fung

To try to make it more clear, what I expect should happen:

1. Adding an item to the library should trigger an auto sync - does not auto sync.
2. Manually triggering sync with 'sync full-text content' ON - does not sync, error message is produced.
3. Manually triggering sync with 'sync full-text content' OFF - sync works.

However, in either of those cases, while I'm on my laptop and the laptop did not create the item:

A. Double clicking any item with a snapshot or pdf link - does not open the snapshot or pdf.
B. Right click and 'View Online" - opens the snapshot.
C. Right click and "View PDF" - does not open the linked PDF.
D. Right click and "Open in External Viewer" - opens the linked PDF.
E. I have items with a Google Book Link. Double clicking it opens the link.

On the other hand, I have no issues on my desktop machine syncing or accessing links whether or not it was created on the desktop machine or the laptop.

I apologize if it is still unclear. These may or may not be separate issues, but I'm just trying to provide as much information as I think is necessary. There seems to be a bunch of things going on here.

c7fung

All I have is Windows Defender. I've tried disabling Windows Firewall, but nothing seems to change.

dstillman

We can ignore everything else as long as you're getting the nsIFileInputStream.init error, and if you're getting that, it means Zotero isn't able to access a full-text cache file — and there's nothing it can do about that. If you're not running any security software, do you have your Zotero data directory on a network share or in a server-mirrored home directory? If so, you should move your data directory to a regular location on the local drive and point Zotero to that from the Advanced → Files and Folders pane of the Zotero preferences.

c7fung

The data directory is stored locally. I've only created a symlink for the 'storage' folder to point to a folder on OneDrive.

dstillman

That's the problem, then.

c7fung

I've removed the symlink to the OneDrive storage folder and syncing now with 'sync full-text content' on does not produce the error. Auto sync also works, it just takes a few seconds after adding an item.

From what I understand then by doing this, is that there will be two instances of Zotero now each having its own and (not shared) storage folder...which would mean snapshots will not be shared? Must I use 'Sync attachment files in My Library using Zotero'?

dstillman

Not sure I follow. Which two instances are you referring to? If you mean on two separate computers, there's no difference in terms of disk space — if you have files syncing via OneDrive, they're still on both computers. This way they're just syncing via the Zotero servers (though you're limited to 300 MB without a storage subscription).

To be clear, you don't want to just remove the symlink — you want to move the 'storage' folder from OneDrive into the Zotero data directory so that you can still access all the files and so that they sync up to the Zotero servers and your other computer(s). You'll then need to turn file syncing on in the prefs. You also might need to do a Reset File Sync History from the Sync->Reset pane of the Zotero preferences after moving the 'storage' folder back. (Don't use any of the other reset options.)

Finally, I can't tell you why you're actually getting an error — people do what you were doing with Dropbox all the time, and it should be possible — but something about OneDrive was apparently breaking the normal file calls that Zotero makes.

c7fung

Thanks for the help. Really had to get going with the research so I didn't have time to reply right away.

So I have since updated both my computers to Windows 10. I was curious to see if I could give OneDrive another shot. Everything seems to be working as originally set up:

symlinks on both machines point to 'storage' folder on the Onedrive, with ZotFile managing pdf links.

May have been some issue with Onedrive on win 8 & 7? In any case, thanks.