Zotero not allowing me to attach PDFs

katietseng

Hello, normally when I use PubMed/Medline, I will select a journal article/open the abstract and click on the "save to zotero" option in the top right corner of my Firefox browser. The journal article not only saves to Zotero, but automatically has attached to it a "PubMed entry". I can additionally drag and drop PDFs to the journal article in Zotero.

Nothing appears to have changed in my Zotero preferences, but when I save PubMed articles to Zotero now, the "PubMed entry" attachment no longer appears, and I am not able to attach any PDFs.

Any help/recommendation would be appreciated.

Thank you very much,

Katie

Gurdas_Sandhu

Can you provide an example link? And the Zotero icon in Firefox says "Save to Zotero (PubMed)"?

And you are unable to attach PDFs for any article, and not just the ones created from PubMed, right?

I tried this item and it saved to Zotero with a copy of the PubMed page:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27639470

adamsmith

Also, is that under "My Library" or in a group?

katietseng

Hi Gurdas,

Sure, the link I saved to Zotero is: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27626523. And yes, the Zotero icon in Firefox says, "Save to Zotero (PubMed)", and I am unable to attach PDFs for any article.

Hi Adam,

It is under a group library/collection.

Thank you both,

Katie

Gurdas_Sandhu

If it is a group library, then you be limited by the group library's attachment storage quota. Check if the group library is setup to sync attachment files (see Preferences > Sync). Check what is the storage quota for the group on the group homepage, or write to the group owner.

I am not sure if this will work, but you can try unchecking the sync attachment files for group libraries and retry. It is not a recommended solution, just a test. The recommended solution would be to increase the group storage quota (which only the group owner can do).

adamsmith

Then you likely don't have permissions to add attachments to the group. Check with the group's owner (or if you own the group, check under group settings on this website).

Gurdas_Sandhu

Actually, my response is probably incorrect. I think even if you hit group storage quota, Zotero will allow you to save attachments to your LOCAL copy (just that other group members will not see the attachments since the sync works through the storage quota).
Right, @adamsmith ?

adamsmith

Pretty sure that's right, yes -- you'd get a sync error when going over the group limit, you'd still be able to add.

This is almost certainly group permissions as per my last post.

Gurdas_Sandhu

@katietseng Here is a snapshot of the group settingspage (for a group I own):
https://1drv.ms/i/s!Atcr8aCyjBrulOcj0HRlwgzwwPGggA

katietseng

Hi Adam and Gurdas,

Thank you for your response, it was very helpful. I checked the Group Library settings as you recommended and it seems that because it was set as publicly accessible, I was not able to enable file storage. After changing the setting so that the library is for group members only, I was able to enable file storage. Thank you both for your help!

Best,

Katie

adamsmith

Note that you can still have the group public and have files in it if you want to -- it just needs to have membership closed (i.e. by invitation only).

katietseng

Ah, I see! Thank you.