"Recent files" in file manager is filled by Zotero pdfs

gianlucabertaina

Hi,
I have an issue with the Nemo (or Nautilus) file manager on Ubuntu linux (16.04). The Recent files link, which should show only the files that I recently manually opened, is instead filled by pdf files which are attached to Zotero entries. Typically recently added pdfs, but not all of them, and also older pdfs.
I guess it is probably a bug in the file manager, but I would like to understand a possible reason. Does Zotero access again (some of) the pdfs each time it opens? Could this be related to the indexing feature? In my limited time I could do some tests, if anybody has suggestions. does anybody have a similar issue with other file managers and operating systems?

This is important for me because it basically renders the Recent files link unusable.

Thank you for any suggestion,
Gianluca

adamsmith

For one, this does not happen to me with Nautilus under Ubuntu 16.10

I can't think of an obvious reason that would happen -- can you describe your Zotero set-up some more? Standalone vs. Firefox, do you sync files and if so how; do you annotate PDFs and if so how, anything else relevant.

dstillman

Does Zotero access again (some of) the pdfs each time it opens?

It checks the modification time for all files on the first sync of the session. I don't know if that would update the access time (assuming that's what Nautilus is using for that list), but you can check with ls and the appropriate flags.

gianlucabertaina

Hi, in fact I am only sure of the problem with Nemo. I sort of recalled having the same problem with Nautilus some time ago. I will test Nautilus as soon as I have time to change my configuration.

What I noticed is that the access time of the said pdfs coincides with the time I clicked on the "Recent" link in Nemo, so my suspect is that the problem is on the Nemo side (which in my configuration comes from a ppa repository).
If I better understand the situation I will post my findings here.
Thanks,
Gianluca