don't want Zotero duplicating my files
Hello! I am new to Zotero.
I like that it retrieves metadata from .pdfs so I like having it linked to my files.
But, I have been researching for many years now and I have my own file organization system, and I do not want to use Zotero's.
Right now, Zotero has copied all my .pdfs to put it inside its own storage system, the one with the folders with the letters and numbers. I don't like this and I want it to just use my "Readings" folder.
I downloaded Zotfile. The General Settings for Zotfile has the Location of Files set to my "Readings" folder, instead of "attach stored copy of file(s)". I then deleted the Storage folder in my Zotero folder, to get rid of the copy. But Zotero just made a new Storage folder with new copies to replace it.
I am still confused about how to make this happen. Please help. Thank you!
I like that it retrieves metadata from .pdfs so I like having it linked to my files.
But, I have been researching for many years now and I have my own file organization system, and I do not want to use Zotero's.
Right now, Zotero has copied all my .pdfs to put it inside its own storage system, the one with the folders with the letters and numbers. I don't like this and I want it to just use my "Readings" folder.
I downloaded Zotfile. The General Settings for Zotfile has the Location of Files set to my "Readings" folder, instead of "attach stored copy of file(s)". I then deleted the Storage folder in my Zotero folder, to get rid of the copy. But Zotero just made a new Storage folder with new copies to replace it.
I am still confused about how to make this happen. Please help. Thank you!
With that out of the way, if you still want to go this way, here's what you'd do:
This is assuming a blank library.
1. You probably will want to disable auto-sync while you're figuring this out. (I think e.g. that's why your storage folder mysteriously returned)
2. Getting links into Zotero: Instead of dragging files to Zotero, you want to either use the "Link to File" option under the green plus sign or use ctrl+shift+drag (cmd+opt+drag on Mac).
3. You can then retrieve metadata on all the files -- as you've already noted, if you do a lot of this quickly, google scholar will lock you out. Improvement on that are planned, but currently the only way to deal with this is to go in small-ish steps.
4. You can now set up ZotFile with a custom location for files. This will affect any newly added files, not the old ones. Note that ZotFile only move files once they're attached to metadata. If you regularly drag or otherwise save a file to Zotero by itself, it will still go into storage until attached to metadata and moved by Zotfile.
#2—okay, so me dragging my files in made the duplicates, I think. So what I want to do is delete my existing Zotero stuff that I dragged in, then re-import the stuff with "Link to file" instead of dragging-and-dropping?
You could do this manually, but if there are too many items, maybe ZotFile can do this (I do not know).
My attachments are organized using this schema. With a base directory setup, you can move the PDFs between computers and drives as long as everything inside the base directory is consistent. For example:
let's say your base directory is set to C:\Users\username\Documents\Articles\
Inside this base directory, you might have sub-folders, such as "Conference", "Journal Article", or "A" "B", "C". Later, if you wish to move everything to another drive (D:\MyData\), or maybe an online storage folder (C:\Users\username\Documents\Dropbox\), you just need to go to Preferences and point to the new base folder.
Notes:
- Before you make any major changes, please take a full backup
- If you use "Attach Link to File", the attachments cannot be synced via Zotero's storage. But then, they can be synced via Dropbox/OneDrive/Google Drive. However, you cannot open attachments from Zotero's web interface (because they are not on Zotero's storage server).
All of gurdas's advice is good, btw., but I'd recommend you to first get everything set up the way you want and _then_ deal with the base directory etc.