(Almost) All attachments missing from group library

urherken

When I tried to get to an attachment in our group library today from my Mac, I got the "file not located" message. I then tried other files, with the same result.
Switched to the web version, and while all records show the correct number of attachments, I only get an "Attachment Detail" link, but no link to the actual stored PDF. So far I only found 1 in several hundred records that had an accessible attachment.

I'm a bit desperate here and could use some help, please!

bwiernik

This likely means that the items have not finished uploading from the computer where they were added. Check that computer for a sync error.

urherken

All of these items were there before but now they are gone. These are not recent uploads - some of them had been uploaded months ago. In fact, items that were added more recently are still there. I now have hundreds of useless records, and it will take weeks to recreate them - if we can find the originals again.

Looks like the idea to use Zotero as the only central repository of all files was a bad one. We'll have to dedicate one local computer to hold a copy of all of these files so we can restore in case of a failure like this.

Anyone else ever experience something like this?

dstillman

What are some example zotero.org URLs for items with missing files?

dstillman

Note that there's no code in Zotero to delete local files separately from their attachments, so either 1) those attachments were added on another computer or 2) you're using a different Zotero data directory on this computer from the one you were using when you created the items.

In either case, you wouldn't need to "recreate" anything. The files would all still exist on the computers where the attachments were created, and you'd just need to force Zotero to reupload those files (assuming you didn't delete files in 'storage' manually).

But hold off on doing anything until we look at some example URLs.

urherken

Just a few examples:
https://www.zotero.org/groups/458155/zoll_all/items/itemKey/3S7EXSMI
https://www.zotero.org/groups/458155/zoll_all/items/itemKey/22X2UF49
https://www.zotero.org/groups/458155/zoll_all/items/itemKey/EA2BDSBU
https://www.zotero.org/groups/458155/zoll_all/items/itemKey/4HFK98IZ
https://www.zotero.org/groups/458155/zoll_all/items/itemKey/Z5RJGD4E

Would be great if you could at least figure out what happened so we can avoid repeating that in the future.
Thank you!

dstillman

OK, I've restored the Zotero Storage associations for all the files in that library, so you should see all your files again on the web and should be able to sync and/or open them locally as long as you have file sync enabled.

It looks like these associations were cleared a few days ago when one of the group admins synced using Zotero 4.0, and something about that sync caused all attachment items in the online library to be updated in a way that triggered this. We'll look into what might have happened, but you should also encourage everyone in your group to upgrade to Zotero 5.0, since it's likely that this wouldn't have happened with 5.0.

Just to clarify, this wouldn't have affected your local Zotero, so any files you couldn't access you simply had never downloaded on that computer previously (and they weren't available online when Zotero then tried to download them). And again, the files would've still existed on the computer where they were originally created (unless they were deleted manually from 'storage'), so a Reset File Sync History from the Sync -> Reset pane of the Zotero preferences on that computer would've had the same effect. But, of course, this shouldn't have happened, so we'll investigate.

urherken

You are awesome! I had literally no hope that there was a way to fix this on your end, and that we would have to go through the process of re-uploading all files from the different members of our group.

Before I accuse anyone in my group: is it possible that PaperShip identifies itself as Zotero 4.0 when accessing the server? Because I (cough) recently used that app on my phone (and continue to run into trouble with it).

Thanks again!

dstillman

No, it wasn't you — it was a specific sync from another member of your group with Zotero 4.0 that 1) reuploaded all attachment items and 2) apparently triggered some server-side bug that caused file associations to be lost when that happened. I'm not currently sure what caused either of those to happen, but there's a very good chance it's specific to 4.0.

urherken

Once more, Thank you! Identified the "culprit" (now on Zotero 5.x).
Setting up one computer (right now, mine) to download all attachments so I have a local copy of the database, just in case. Only issue: the [Synch attachments... Download at sync time] setting doesn't cause the attachments missing on my Mac to download.

urherken

Signed out. Cleared my local storage. Signed in again. Downloading now, 3500 files to go.
Couldn't have done this without you!

dstillman

Oh, you definitely didn't need to delete anything, and if you mean that you deleted 'storage' then you also wiped out full-text content cache files. If you have a backup, I'd recommend switching back to that.

Zotero doesn't check for missing files until another file is updated remotely, so it would've downloaded the missing files the next time a change was made to a file on another computer, or you could've run Reset File Sync History from the Sync -> Reset pane of the preferences.