Unable to drag and drop pdfs, nor open pdfs on Zotero standalone [Mac]

csbear

Hi all,

Using Zotero 5.055.1 with Mac OS 10.14 Mojave. Even with an earlier version of Zotero 5, and with Mac OS 10.13.6 High Sierra, I encountered the same issue.

I have been unable to drag pdfs and drop pdfs into the Zotero standalone, nor use the add button to add>store copy of file. Existing pdfs within cannot be opened, while symbolic links still work.

Debug ID: D1554786900

Help appreciated,
Thanks!

dstillman

[JavaScript Error: "Component returned failure code: 0x80520008 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ALREADY_EXISTS) [nsILocalFile.create]" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/file.js" line: 959}]

Does it work if you disable ZotFile?

csbear

Disabling Zotfile had no effect. Does it matter if I do not have Chrome installed? My sole browser is Safari.

Thanks.

dstillman

Do you have your Zotero data directory in a cloud storage folder such as Dropbox or on a network share, or is it in a normal location on your local disk?

csbear

My Zotero data directory is stored on the local disk, while my linked attachment base directory is on dropbox.

dstillman

Can you provide another Debug ID from Zotero startup through trying to add a file, using the "Restart with Logging Enabled…" option, with ZotFile disabled?

csbear

I have done so with Debug ID: D85421922

dstillman

It looks like you have your Zotero data directory in the Documents folders, which in recent versions of macOS can be synced with iCloud. Is that the case for you? If you close Zotero, move the data directory to /Users/:username/Zotero, and restart Zotero (and accept the prompt to use the default data directory location), does it still happen?

csbear

Hi, the documents folder for my computer is not synced with iCloud. I have shifted the data directory to /Users/:username/Zotero and used it as the default data directory location, but no changes were observed.

dstillman

That's very strange. If you open the 'storage' directory within your data directory, do you see anything other than folders with 8-character filenames?

Does this happen with all files? E.g., if you download https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf to your desktop and try to add that, do you get the same error?

csbear

It is very strange that I do not have a 'storage' directory to open. I only have an alias of 'storage', and clicking on it produces the dialog box message 'The operation can't be completed because the original item for "storage" can't be found'.

The bitcoin pdf resulted in the same error.

dstillman

Ah, OK, well that's certainly the problem. This is something you did, so you'll need to resolve it on your system.

csbear

I will resolve that on my own. Thank you so much for your time and patience in identifying the problem.

csbear

The storage folder was a broken alias, and once i fixed the alias I could import pdfs as per normal. Thanks once again.