Changing pdf saving folder

agnes123

I do not want Zotero automatically save pdf-s to the folder C:\Users\user\Zotero\storage\6WSG6J36.
I want to make a folder to another hard disk (D:) to save my pdf files.
Can I do that?

bwiernik

Yes, open Zotero preferences to the Advanced pane. Click Files and Folders, and then change the Data Directory location to a folder on the D: drive.

fazwardak

The above answer changes your entire Zotera directory including your entire library and references within it. The question is, how can we change the folder on our computer that Zotero automatically uses to save attached pdf files to? By default it is set to C:\Users\user\Zotero\storage\ but we want to change to another folder *without* disturbing the rest of our library.

dstillman

@fazwardak: You can't change that. When you use stored files, Zotero manages the files for you.

https://www.zotero.org/support/attaching_files#stored_files_and_linked_files

fazwardak

Sorry I didn't realise I've resurrected a zombie thread.

Thanks for your reply. So there is no way to change the folder pdfs are automatically saved to? Seems odd. I wouldn't mind Zotero's default (as it helpfully deletes a file if you delete the file/parent citation from your library so you don't end up with junk files on your computer) but it saves each file in a separate folder with a string of characters rather than just a single folder.

I can see problems when half of my library has 'stored' files (that Zotero automatically downloads) and the other half as 'linked' files that I've had to manually add (if say Zotero couldn't access them via a paywall)

dstillman

This is all covered in the section I linked to. And you're misunderstanding this. Stored vs. linked has nothing to do with whether you add files manually.

tim820

As noted in this recent thread, storage of PDFs to a single folder has traditionally been done by many people with the Zotfile add-on. Note the important caveats mentioned there.
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/100657/single-folder-for-all-pdfs

fazwardak

I've read it again and it doesn't mention anything about being able to change the directory where files are saved?

If I've understood it:

- If you want to attach locally saved files to your citations, you can either attach it as a stored file where Zotero copies it to its own default 'storage' folder and takes over managing the file, or you can link the original file where Zotero only links to the file but does nothing else.

- Whilst stored files sound great, it means the only way you can browse these files is through Zotero acting like an index (as opposed to having the pdfs all in a single folder yourself).

Are there any downsides to having Zotero store all my files and manage them, e.g when it comes to backing up the pdfs - easy to do when they're in a single folder but this way I have to trust Zotero will keep them safe. It just seems cumbersome to have Zotero create a copy of a file for its own directory when I already have the original in my local folder. Maybe I'll just bite the bullet and trust Zotero!

dstillman

I've read it again and it doesn't mention anything about being able to change the directory where files are saved?

@fazwardak: I already answered that. I can't really be clearer than "You can't change that." As explained above, you can change your entire data directory, and you can use linked files, but that's it.

The linked page addresses ways to effectively see a flat list of stored files, it explains how you create stored and linked files (which is different from automatically vs. manually adding files), and it discusses the pros and cons of each method (or, really, the cons of linked files — we think stored files are much better for most people). There's really not a lot to say that's not covered there.

It just seems cumbersome to have Zotero create a copy of a file for its own directory when I already have the original in my local folder.

You wouldn't have the original in a local folder when you save to Zotero using the Zotero Connector, which is the recommended workflow. If you do download a file separately, you'd need to delete the file from your downloads folder, but that's not a recommended workflow, and presumably you wouldn't want to leave a file sitting around in your downloads folder forever anyway.