List of item icons and their significance

AucMGris

If this is in the documentation, I didn't see it, but I can't find a list of the icons that appear to the left of an item and what they mean. Or info about what the difference is between a closed and an open circle to the right of an item.

adamsmith

The icons just reflect the item type, so you can do your own mapping. The circle shows whether the attachment for the item is present on the local disk (filled out circle) or not (empty circle)

AucMGris

But is there a default mapping? I don't want to change the icons' significance. Just to know what they currently mean.

Re empty circles, everything should be stored on my disk. So, I presume that an empty circle for me means that the attachment somehow got deleted or otherwise unmoored from the item. Is that right?

Also, what does it mean when an item or an attachment is grayed out?

Finally, how is it that I have numerous doubled or even tripled attachments? Some that actually link to an attachment, some that bring up the attachment can't be found dialog? The library has not been exported or imported, btw, in case that's relevant.

I'm trying to at last sort out my hierarchies and items, and I'm finding that things are much messier than I expected. And that I know a lot less about Zotero's signifiers than I thought I did.

dstillman

But is there a default mapping? I don't want to change the icons' significance. Just to know what they currently mean.

adamsmith just means you can figure it out from looking at the icon and the item type. They're just icons for each item type. A book item looks like a book. Et cetera.

I presume that an empty circle for me means that the attachment somehow got deleted or otherwise unmoored from the item. Is that right?

Yes. Generally that would be from 1) linked (not stored) files that you move outside of Zotero or 2) files that you added on another computer and simply haven't synced. For the latter, see Files Not Syncing.

Also, what does it mean when an item or an attachment is grayed out?

It means it doesn't match the current search.

Finally, how is it that I have numerous doubled or even tripled attachments? Some that actually link to an attachment, some that bring up the attachment can't be found dialog?

If you merged duplicates, you'll have duplicates for any attachments. Attachments aren't currently merged at all (because it's a complicated problem — the files may differ, may have different names/metadata, etc.).

AucMGris

Thanks. Very helpful.

AucMGris

Something that I've just noticed. Some of my items have snapshots attached, but they don't have the blue dot that indicates an attachment. Am I missing something about when a blue dot should appear?

dstillman

The blue dot tells you whether the associated file exists locally.

AucMGris

Well, I was just about to edit my post. What claims to be a snapshot goes to the website rather than bringing up a local file.

All my files are purely local btw. I'm not synching anything. But the problem I just identified above seems a different kettle of fish. I can fix it by returning to the site and saving a snapshot. That will be a fair amount of work, but it's doable. The only problem is some of the items are old, and the URLs may be dead. Hopefully there won't be too many of those.

Thanks as always for the rapid reply!

dstillman

It's not "claiming" to be a snapshot unless it's a snapshot. Linked-URL attachments have a different icon and don't show the blue dot at all. I thought you meant snapshots with an empty blue dot.

AucMGris

Well, it certainly says "Snapshot". Mind if I send a screenshot to you? I can't paste it here.

dstillman

You can upload a snapshot somewhere (e.g., Dropbox) and post a link here.

AucMGris

Ok

AucMGris

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kh0sml6pib8xwfc/Screenshot of Snapshot.PNG?dl=0

Clicking on the "Snapshot" opens the original site, not a local file.

dstillman

That's a linked-URL attachment, not a snapshot. It would've been converted during some export/import you did.

AucMGris

Well, it calls itself a snapshot. Which was confusing. And it was supposed to be a snapshot. At least that's what I believed I was creating when I downloaded the item.

So, I think that you must be right. Something must have happened in the export/import to convert the attachment. The problem is that there appear to have been a _lot_ of conversions. And quite a number of instances in which the file corresponding to a snapshot can't be found when the snapshot is clicked. (I suppose that the file might still be in the storage folder somewhere, but I've done searches for filenames without success.) So, I think I'm just going to have to revisit many sites.

dstillman

It's not "calling itself" anything. "Snapshot" is the attachment title, because it was a snapshot originally a snapshot before you exported — likely without "Export Files" selected — and imported, which will convert snapshot to linked-URL attachments to preserve as much data as possible.

AucMGris

Hmm. I thought I was pretty careful about the export. But I'll go back and check.

dstillman

The file also has to exist locally before you export. If it's already missing, the snapshot will also be created to a linked-URL attachment.

AucMGris

The original file shows a hollow circle for these items. So, that's where things started to go wrong. In the original file, some items with snapshots show solid circles, and have local files, and others have open circles, and lack local files. So, something got messed up with the original file. Though how and what I don't know. For what it's worth, database integrity checks out for the original file.

dstillman

It wasn't Zotero. Zotero never deletes files for existing attachments.

AucMGris

No, I didn't think it did. But could it have lost track of them somehow? I'm thinking that in the course of the profile mess that I went through (i.e., caused), the zotero.sqlite file could have been deleted (by me) and then recreated (by Zotero when I resurrected the old profile) in a way that led to links to some attachments being defective. Either totally lost (no circle and a "Snapshot" that was really a recovered link) or misdirected (open circle and a dialogue box saying the attachment couldn't be found). Why some links would go bad and others wouldn't I have no idea. But it's the best idea/speculation I can come up with.

dstillman

I'm not sure what you mean by "resurrected", but Zotero doesn't "lose track" of files — the folder name is based on the non-changing item key in the database. One way or another, this can only happen if things are moved or deleted outside of Zotero.

AucMGris

By resurrected, I mean that I created a new profile, having accidentally blown the old one away, and then linked that new profile to the folder containing the old storage folder. I did not think to check before I did that if there a was pre-existing zotero.sqlite file . (Yes, I now know that the zotero.sqlite file should not be in the same folder as the storage folder, but that's precisely the mistake I made that caused my problems. Using the same folder for the profile and the profile's data. It worked until I deleted a profile, which created havoc.) So, a new one may have been created. It's too late to determine that now, I suppose, since I've added items to the library, etc. But I can assure you that I have _never_ intentionally, or as far as I am aware unintentionally, deleted anything in the storage folder.