Create parent item - unexpected behaviour
In the last couple of days (5.0.37?) Zotero has started behaving unusually. When I drop a file into it and click on Create parent item it has started automatically finding metadata.
When it does this, it automatically downloads a different file from the one I dropped and the original file remains as just a name and cannot be opened. It is not in the item folder.
So far this is no great problem except that
a) I should prefer the file I chose since I often rename these to mean something, and
b) if I ask for a parent item, that's all I want Zotero to do. Otherwise I might just as well ask it to find metadata.
I am aware of Preferences but the change is unexpected.
When it does this, it automatically downloads a different file from the one I dropped and the original file remains as just a name and cannot be opened. It is not in the item folder.
So far this is no great problem except that
a) I should prefer the file I chose since I often rename these to mean something, and
b) if I ask for a parent item, that's all I want Zotero to do. Otherwise I might just as well ask it to find metadata.
I am aware of Preferences but the change is unexpected.
This, though, doesn't sound right: are you sure you're not just seeing the automatic rename? Zotero would not download any additional or alternate files.
I’ve got a screendump to show you but I don’t see anywhere to attach it.
As I said, the original appears to remain but won’t open - weird.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aISAp0jeae7jDG9FFTKN-WDf-kNtikng/view?usp=sharing
It shows the item, 'Consular diptychs, etc'; the pdf which Zotero has found, 'Eastmond 2010'; and below it my original pdf which I dropped into Zotero, 'Consular_Diptychs_Rhetoric, etc' which is now no longer a pdf but has turned into a document which cannot be opened.
All Zotero would do itself is create the journal article item, make it the parent of the PDF, and rename the PDF. (And Zotero hasn't "found" a PDF — it's just the file that you dragged in, which Zotero renamed.)
If you use Create Parent Item in the second or two it takes to retrieve metadata, you would get that Document item with the same title as the original PDF, and since Zotero is in the process of moving the PDF to the new journal article item, it ends up as a Document item with nothing under it.