Consistent storage of PDF attachments

urbanizationist

Is there a way to make Zotero store PDF attachments consistently? If I use the browser connector it stores them in the Base Directory specified in the Files and Folders settings. But if I import through drag-and-drop the files end up in the Zotero storage directory. This difference fragments my files.

While I can redress this by manually moving imported files from the storage directory into my Base Directory, this breaks the links in the references.

How can I set Zotero to default save attachments to the Base Directory no matter how they are imported to the reference database?

adamsmith

Zotero always saves files to storage.
It sounds like you have ZotFile installed, which can move items to a custom directory (set in the ZotFile preferences -- this should be the same as base, typically, but the two aren't automatically linked), but it doesn't do so automatically for PDFs dragged to Zotero -- that's a known limitation, no way around that.
You can trigger that action from "Manage attachments"--> Rename attachements though, no need to manually move the files.

qqbb

manually moving imported files from the storage directory into my Base Directory […] breaks the links in the references

@urbanizationist: Yes, you really shouldn't do this. Zotero's storage directory is managed by the Zotero desktop program. Never manually remove files from storage. See Stored Files and Linked Files.

Note that ZotFile's move and rename function might require parent items.

BTW, there're different modes of dragging files to Zotero. On a Windows computer, these are "Drag", "Shift+Drag", "Ctrl+Shift+Drag", corresponding to "copy", "move", "link", respectively.