How to correct indexing errors

adshiller
When setting up Zotero, I dragged several thousand PDFs from dropbox into Zotero.
I did it in smaller batches, so as to not to overwhelm the system.
Some files got incorrectly included under irrelevant records.
So in other words, I've got a library record, and underneath it, there are like 100 PDFs that have no relation to it.
How can I fix that?
I've noted that if I select the pdfs and right click, I get various choices. One of them is "re-index", but when I select that, nothing happens.
I've tried dragging the PDFs into the library folder, or another folder, but that doesn't do anything either.
Any suggestion?
@dstillman ?
  • adamsmith
    (please don't @ people with general questions -- devs read all threads and multiple people are able to answer most questions).

    Unless I'm misunderstanding, "indexing" is the wrong way to think about this. You have PDFs attached to Zotero items they don't belong to. The way to fix that would be to drag them out from under the item they're attached to. That can be a bit finnicky, but if you move the cursor around slowly on drag & drop operations, you can tell where items are being dragged/placed. I'd suggest starting with a couple of PDFs at once and then move large numbers of items.)
  • adshiller
    @adamsmith Thanks for your reply. Noted re: @.

    Thanks for correction on 'indexing'. Indeed, PDFs attached to items they don't belong too.
    I've tried to drag them, but it doesn't seem to let me do that.
    I can select a bunch, but when I drag to another folder in Zotero, it doesn't 'open' or change colors. Where do you suggest I drag them?
  • dstillman
    You have to drag them off of the parent item first. Once you’ve done that, you can copy or move them to other collections.

    Once they're standalone PDFs, you can also right-click on them and run Retrieve Metadata for PDF.
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