Storing on hard drive or other cloud storage

michael.amherst

I've just started using Zotero and it's great. My only issue is where all my data is stored and synced to. At present I use my iCloud account for everything, with it also backed up to my two computers and backup hard drive. Is there anyway of pointing Zotero (desktop) version to store everything either on a local drive or different cloud storage option?

sean

Your Zotero data already is stored on a local drive: https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data

michael.amherst

Thanks for that. But is there also anyway of getting it to sync with a different cloud version? As I say, I'd ideally like it all in my iCloud so it syncs to local versions across my devices but with a version on iCloud too. Particularly as I have the space on iCloud and don't wish to purchase additional cloud storage elsewhere.

dstillman

Data can only be synced via the Zotero servers (at least without risking easily corrupting your Zotero database), and that's free and unlimited. There are ways to sync just files without paying for Zotero storage, but they're a little complicated to set up — you either have to use WebDAV or symlink the 'storage' in your Zotero data directory to Dropbox or another cloud provider. (If you don't know how to do the latter, it's probably not a good idea. And I don't know if that approach works with iCloud Drive.)

You definitely don't want to put your entire data directory in cloud storage, since that will corrupt your database.

adamsmith

In addition to what Dan suggests, you can also look at the approach described here:
http://libguides.princeton.edu/c.php?g=84032&p=544384 -- steps 5 and 6 can basically be automated with the ZotFile add-on
This method, too, takes a bit to set up and has some drawbacks (e.g. doesn't work for groups, won't auto-delete files) but if set up correctly is safe to use.

michael.amherst

Many thanks for your replies. Once I've done that I assume that any new files/PDFs added in the desktop version of Zotero will link automatically to that file's root?

adamsmith

given that we've described three different options here, I'm not sure what "Once I've done that" refers to.
If you're referring to to linked files, then the answer is that no, files are not automatically linked when you add them to Zotero (you can set up ZotFile to do that for attached files, though) but yes, all links are automatically relative once you've set that up once.

michael.amherst

Apologies, I was referring to your solution. I can see that obviously I'd need to 're-link' to my existing files once I'd changed the root folder where they're stored; I was just assuming that once Zotero is set up to point to iCloud for documents it will automatically store and link to that location for any new files I drag and drop from then on.

adamsmith

OK, that's what I answered--so basically no, but partially/largely so once you've set up ZotFile.

michael.amherst

Ok thanks for that. You say partially/largely - is there any rhyme or reason as to why/which won't? Or will I need to check each time I drag'n'drop to see whether it's linked automatically?

I appreciate your help, thank you.

adamsmith

PDFs attached to items yes, PDFs dragged/added to Zotero as top level items no (though you can use Zotfile's "Manage Attachments" to move them easily after adding them to a top level item).

michael.amherst

Great. Really helpful. Thanks so much.