PDF import not automatically generating/populating as an article item

ollielloyd · September 6, 2020

Hi all,

seem to be having a problem recently with Zotero not importing PDFs properly (academic published articles). This didn't used to be an issue.

Now, however, if I drag and drop a pdf directly into zotero (or try to import using Firefox connector) although the pdf shows up, it no longer automatically generates a zotero item and autopopulates all the citatation data.

I have checked the error log but there is no error being logged.

Very frustrating as this was one of the best features of Zotero.

I have tried deleting and reinstalling zoetero but no luck.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,
Ollie

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Zotero 5.0.90; MacOS 10.15.6; Firefox 80.0.1

dstillman · September 6, 2020

Nothing has changed in Zotero, but the upstream service we (and many bibliographic tools) use to retrieve metadata for DOIs has been unreliable the last day or two, which could cause PDFs with DOIs in the first few pages not to result in proper metadata. The service is working for me at the moment, though.

The alternative would simply be that you're dragging PDFs that don't have identifiable information.

ollielloyd · September 7, 2020

Thanks for reply.

I had a hunt around again in all the settings and it looks as though I must at some point, although I don't know why, have unchecked the "automaticaly retrieve metadata for PDFs" in the preferences.

All working agin now.