lost attached files and database

Nathalie Brender
We have locally a database that has over 220'00 files/folders and 8 GB. In Zotero interface, we do not see the attached files (there are empty bullet points but when files can be located, these bullet points are colored). Is there any mean that Zotero can search in all folders to find these attached files ?

Or is this issue linked somehow to the storage limitations recently imposed by Zotero ? In that case, is there any way to have these files back in increasing my storage space or were these files lost during the Zotero software update?

Thanks in advance for your help.
Nathalie
  • bwiernik
    Are you seeing this on the same computer as where you had previously had all the files available or a different one where you have the library synced?

    Are you using linked files or Zotero storage? If the latter, if you change your Sync preferences to “Download Files as Needed” then try to download an attachment with an empty circle, does it download and open?
  • dstillman
    If this is Zotero 5, the "as needed" preference shouldn't make a difference for this anymore — Zotero will always try to download a missing file that's available in the online library as long as auto-sync is enabled. But if the files were created on another computer and were never uploaded, they wouldn't be available.

    More info: https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/files_not_syncing
    Or is this issue linked somehow to the storage limitations recently imposed by Zotero ?
    I'm not sure what this is referring to.
  • Nathalie Brender
    I have Zotero 5.23 and changed the preferences to "as needed" but it did not work. Any other idea ? thx in advance for your help. nathalie
  • Nathalie Brender
    The storage comment referred to one recent update of Zotero (this summer?) mentioning that storage would not be illimited anymore. Could that have an impact on my databases. I have two databases and the problem is with one of them; and I am also having accesses to two other databases for which the rigths are with one project colleagues.
    Thx again in advance for your help,
    nathalie
  • Nathalie Brender
    I have a sync error report ID 57341574. What should I do next ? thx
    Nahtlaie
  • adamsmith
    https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/files_not_syncing has multiple troubleshooting steps. It is not clear if you've run through all of them and if so, with what results. Could you make that explicit -- that might fix the issue, but at a minimum will help us better understand what the exact problem is.
  • Nathalie Brender
    The problem is that I cannot access my files directly from the interface zotero.

    Here is the error message: the attached file could not be found.
    It may have been moved or deleted outside of Zotero, or, if the file was added on another computer, it may not yet have been synced to zotero.org.

    It seems that the files cannot be located anymore, which means that I cannot access the references we saved in the database. I do not understand why as I have another library for another project that works perfectly.

    The only thing I noted is that the bullet points at the end of each reference are colored in the database that works, and not in the one that does not work anymore. I have tried all the advises mentioned above and none worked.

    thx nathalie
  • adamsmith
    Presumably, given this is a group, it is synced to multiple computers. The above troubleshooting asks you to figure out if the files are a) accessible from a different computer and b) accessible online. Let's start with that.
  • Nathalie Brender
    We copied all files on my computer and provided the link in Zotero. Shouldn't that work then ?
  • dstillman
    You'll need to follow the instructions on the linked page.
  • adamsmith
    Specifically, we'd actually need to know what you found in the various steps -- where the files online? On another computer?
    And if they are online, then the debug output described at the bottom.
  • Gurdas_Sandhu
    edited November 1, 2017
    And just to answer your question about Zotero storage: there has been no change to Zotero storage in recent years and certainly not in 2017. Zotero still has free unlimited storage of your metadata. There is a free 300 MB storage for attachments. And you can buy unlimited storage for attachments at $120/yr.
    https://www.zotero.org/support/storage
  • Nathalie Brender
    In order to get back the files attached, I was told by a colloeague to buy for USD 20 dollars storage. I did this last Thursday and launched the syncrhonisation. Since then, on Zotero interface, the green arrow above on the right side is turning without stopping but nothing has changed so far.
    what can you recommend ? Kind regards and THKS
  • adamsmith
    Our questions here would still be the same -- I'm actually doubtful that buying storage would help in your situation (which is why no one here suggested it), but there's really no way of telling without knowing what you found when running through the troubleshooting.
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