Upgrade StorageQuestions and advises for managing linked files library
Dear everyone,
I have just discovered Zotero few days ago and I am very excited by such a helpful and powerful tool, thank you to all contributors!!
My need is to create a library linking various media (mostly pdf but also videos, images and mp3) stored on my computer hard drive. Those media are in different folders and I want to leave them where they are. So, I have started to create my library with linked files attachments. But I have several questions so far:
1. As it is a long process to create the library, I am a bit afraid that one day I might need to change some folders names breaking the linked files directories. So is there a method to use relative paths for the links avoiding to update the links later? (I have read the relative path information, but as it is in the case of using several computers I haven't really understood if it can been used in my case).
2. In case of updating the links, as I have media from different folders how is it possible to identify the links that have been broken from those that haven't? Or asked differently: what might be the best way to do it?
3. I have made a test on several documents from the same folder to update the links using Zutilo but it has been a disaster!! At the end all my documents inside Zotero were linked to wrong documents... The original full directory was C:\Users\MyDocuments\BUSINESS DOCS\FOLDER A\Articles\document.pdf changed into C:\Users\MyDocuments\BUSINESS DOCS\FOLDER B\Articles\document.pdf. What I have done was selecting several files in Zotero and asking Zutilo to change the begin of the directory as "C:\Users\MyDocuments\BUSINESS DOCS\FOLDER A\" into "C:\Users\MyDocuments\BUSINESS DOCS\FOLDER B\" and without ticking "replace all instances of the path" (by the way I don't really understand what it means...). What was wrong?
4. Now I have noticed something strange with the links is that they are working well but for some of them the names of the folders in the links have been changed into something like: C:\Users\MyDocuments\DOCUME~1\_DOCSL~1\1088A4~1.BIZ\document.pdf
What does it mean?, why it has been changed?, by who? and why not all of them?
I am sorry for my long list of questions but if someone could help me that would be very much appreciated!!
Laurent
I have just discovered Zotero few days ago and I am very excited by such a helpful and powerful tool, thank you to all contributors!!
My need is to create a library linking various media (mostly pdf but also videos, images and mp3) stored on my computer hard drive. Those media are in different folders and I want to leave them where they are. So, I have started to create my library with linked files attachments. But I have several questions so far:
1. As it is a long process to create the library, I am a bit afraid that one day I might need to change some folders names breaking the linked files directories. So is there a method to use relative paths for the links avoiding to update the links later? (I have read the relative path information, but as it is in the case of using several computers I haven't really understood if it can been used in my case).
2. In case of updating the links, as I have media from different folders how is it possible to identify the links that have been broken from those that haven't? Or asked differently: what might be the best way to do it?
3. I have made a test on several documents from the same folder to update the links using Zutilo but it has been a disaster!! At the end all my documents inside Zotero were linked to wrong documents... The original full directory was C:\Users\MyDocuments\BUSINESS DOCS\FOLDER A\Articles\document.pdf changed into C:\Users\MyDocuments\BUSINESS DOCS\FOLDER B\Articles\document.pdf. What I have done was selecting several files in Zotero and asking Zutilo to change the begin of the directory as "C:\Users\MyDocuments\BUSINESS DOCS\FOLDER A\" into "C:\Users\MyDocuments\BUSINESS DOCS\FOLDER B\" and without ticking "replace all instances of the path" (by the way I don't really understand what it means...). What was wrong?
4. Now I have noticed something strange with the links is that they are working well but for some of them the names of the folders in the links have been changed into something like: C:\Users\MyDocuments\DOCUME~1\_DOCSL~1\1088A4~1.BIZ\document.pdf
What does it mean?, why it has been changed?, by who? and why not all of them?
I am sorry for my long list of questions but if someone could help me that would be very much appreciated!!
Laurent
2. See https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-storage-scanner
3. Try the link mentioned in #1. If you are already doing that, someone who uses this feature of Zutilo might be able to help.
Thank you very much for your helpful reply!