ZotFile "Send to tablet" limits/effects?

megguttwork

Hi, I have two (potentially related) questions about ZotFile/tablet interaction when using Google Drive for storage:

1. Is there a reason you wouldn't use ZotFile to send as many PDFs to your tablet as you wanted? Like, two hundred PDFs, let's say. If they're in Google Drive, then it seems like there wouldn't be any storage issues. Is there another reason you wouldn't want to do this?

2. After you annotate a PDF on your tablet, and it syncs to Google Drive, you can use Zotero to extract those annotations and see the actual annotated PDF. Why would you ever need to use "Get from tablet" to bring the PDFs "back"?

Thanks! (Also, ZotFile is seriously *seriously* amazing.)

adamsmith

1. If you want to go that route, it'd make much more sense to just set up a custom folder on GDrive for ZotFile to aumatically link files to and not use the send to tablet function at all. Not least because

2. Using the Send to Tablet functionality, Zotero is not aware of the annotated PDFs so extracting annotations won't work before you use "Get from tablet". If you use Zotfile to just move files to a custom location, they're always linked to Zotero.

The main reason to use the "Send to/Get from Tablet" functionality would be if you generally prefer to have files stored within Zotero (which has a number of advantages such as that you can move them to group and that they get deleted when you delete them in Zotero) but want the ability to send small batches to a synced folder and the re-integrate any changes you make into Zotero and its storage.

megguttwork

Excellent, thank you!

Although it seems to work fine when I use "Send to Tablet", then "Extract Annotations", without using "Get From Tablet". Maybe that's not what you're saying, though? Or maybe you're saying that it *wouldn't* work to do that, if I were using Zotero storage instead?

adamsmith

Are you sure you annotated the "tablet" copy, not the local one? I don't think there's any way extract annotations should work prior to get from tablet if you annotated the tablet copy.

megguttwork

On my tablet, at home, I navigated to where the PDFs are stored in Google Drive. I annotated a PDF and saved it. Then I used Zotero, on my work computer, to extract the annotations, and it worked.

megguttwork

(I used "Send to Tablet" first, from my work computer, before I went home.)

kirgilh96

hey guys,

i am feeling really annoyed by not getting my workflow done ...

so i'll explain shortly how it looks (looked) like:

up until now i had my storage folder on my icloud drive, and created an alias in my zotero folder on the computer.
that was great because with a simple search i had all files within reach plus i could seemlessly make annotations with my pdf viewer on my tablet and they'd be linked back to the library.

some guy told me thats bad (to have your storage folder on your cloud service while it being aliased back to your computer), not sure if its true actually ...

ANYWAYS, now i returned to the default setup - deleted the alias and replaced it with the actual storage folder, so it is in the old fashioned directory on my computer again.

furthermore i rented the zotero cloud service, thinking i could make annotations going there every time i want to make annotations.

but its all screwed up now.
i realised: the web browser doesnt allow me to do so, right?
i can only open the pdfs but it would not sync annotations and i first have to download the files i want to work on.

its a mess i could swear this whole thing to another galaxy man,

what do i do now?
cancel this subscription? already paid .. for what???

so what i am going to do is make zotfile send all my files to my icloud drive
because as mentioned above i want ALL my files to have at hand
and not be forced to do it manually everytime i have a new pdf to read. how do i do that? i dont know.

is there a slack/ discord channel for zoteroans? i feel left alone and i just cant help myself with this crap. ive already spent hours leading nowhere -.-

adamsmith

It's easier to help if you don't write stream of consciousness posts but just clearly state your questions/problems...

You can indeed not easily annotated files on a tablet when using Zotero file storage currently. An iOS app that would presumably allow this on a iPad is planned, but unclear when it's going to come out.

If you want to have all files on iCloud (or Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.) in an automatic way, these are the two safe options: https://www.zotero.org/support/sync#alternative_syncing_solutions

If you've recently purchased the storage subscription and email storage@zotero.org, they might be willing to refund it.

kirgilh96

"If you want to use Zotero data syncing but use an external service to sync just your Zotero attachment files, you have a couple options:"

1. "The easiest method is to use linked files, rather than stored copies of files, and to store your attachment files in the externally synced folder. The ZotFile plugin can make this simple by automatically moving attachment files to a designated folder as you import them. You should also set up Zotero's Linked Attachment Base Directory feature to point to the same folder so that Zotero can find your files on each computer, even if the path to the cloud storage folder differs."

2. "Alternatively, you can use a symlink to sync only the storage directory from your Zotero data directory using the external sync service. This will sync your attachment files without touching the main Zotero SQLite database. This is an advanced technique, and if you don't fully understand how to create symlinks and how they interact with your cloud storage service, you should not use it."

@adamsmith , i can't look through here .. my former setup looked like the second variant, just that i had the symlink in the zotero directory and the real file on my icloud drive. which one of these two ways is better for me and if i choose the first one, is there a good instruction around the forum to read?

it seems the second variant is easier to establish and less complicated ...

adamsmith

The second option works fine, so by all means use that if you liked your previous setup, but make sure you symlink only the storage folder, _not_ the entire data directory. The biggest downside I'd think is that the Zotero storage folder will be in its standard format, which may make it hard to find a specific file (because each PDF is in an individual subfolder with a cryptic folder name).

kirgilh96

i have a problem maybe related to this:
- zotfile does not want to rename my attached files (accordingly to their bibtex
citekey entries)

is the second variant possibly the reason i can't make the renaming process work?
in other words would the first approach be a safer bet towards the extended functionality of zotfile?