Error Message File NOT FOUND after moving the libray

Hello,

My apologies if there is a post that covers this already. I tried to search, but it seems that anybody had the exact same problem.


I moved my Zotero library from DROPBOX to GOOGLE DRIVE, change the location folder and restart it. My library looks exactly as it looked before, with the same entries. However, for some reasons, some PDF can't be localise by Zotero when I click to open them (maybe 70% of them, I have a 9GB library with around 2K entries). The files are there because when I search my computer, I can still find them in some folder inside Zotero storage, so I assume it is a problem of finding the right path.

However I also noticed a very weird thing:

The Zotero storage folder that contains all my PDF (organized in the Zotero's encrypted subfolders), has another subfolder called "storage" that strangely contains all the same the Zotero's encrypted subfolders. Some of my PDF files seem to have ended up there and cannot be localized.

What should I do? I was tempted to bin that folder but in this case I would loose a lot of Pdfs. At the same time I can't manually check every encrypted subfolders for my 2k entries to check which one is empty or not.

I hope I made myself clear, This makes no sense at all and seems to me to be a major problem.

Thanks for helping me put!
  • edited March 27, 2020
    Zotero's encrypted subfolders
    Just to be clear, they're not encrypted. They're just random folder names.

    Are you saying you have your enter Zotero data directory in Google Drive? Because you can't put it in any cloud storage folder — you'll corrupt the database. If that's the case, you should move it out immediately.
    The Zotero storage folder that contains all my PDF (organized in the Zotero's encrypted subfolders), has another subfolder called "storage" that strangely contains all the same the Zotero's encrypted subfolders.
    There should only be one 'storage' folder. If there's another 'storage' folder within 'storage', you did something wrong, and you should combine the folders into the first 'storage' directory within your data directory — which is the directory where Zotero is actually pointing.
  • (I'd guess that you changed the Zotero data directory setting to point to the 'storage' subdirectory instead of the data directory itself, and then either synced or added more files such that it created another 'storage' directory below it. So there's probably also a second zotero.sqlite and various other files within the 'storage' directory.)
  • Many thanks for prompt reply and fixing it!!

    Yes I meant Zotero's random subfolders, sorry I didn't use the right name.

    As for your suggestion, I do have entered the Zotero data directory in Google Drive for a few days then moved back to Dropbox, where I had had it for years with no problems whatsoever.

    And YES, You guessed right, I changed the Zotero data directory setting to point to the 'storage' subdirectory instead of the data directory itself, that is why it created another 'storage' directory below it. Now I have pointed to the right folder and everything looks fine!!!

    Thanks a lot, you saved my day!!
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