Zotfile and Beta version not creating linked files

OldSlippers

I am using the beta version with pdf reader etc and have noticed that when I use the Chrome extension, the file will not be added to my library as a linked file - as it used to do before I got the beta version. On another computer I still have the non-beta version and zotfile works as expected - settings are the same on both computers.

Is this how it should be or am I missing something?
How do I re-install the non-beta version? Thanks so much.

bwiernik

I would not recommend using Zotfile with the new PDF reader. Zotfile has not been updated to work with it, and its system for “moving” items is, under the hood, to delete the imported attachment and re-create it as a linked attachment. That process will delete any annotations you may have made to the PDF before moving.

I don’t know if it would be possible to update Zotfile to work reliably with the new pdf reader—one of the Zotero developers would be able to comment on that.

This beta update makes non-reversible changes to your local Zotero database (to hold the pdf annotations), so to revert, you would need to move or rename your zotero.sqlite database in your Zotero data directory and either do a fresh sync to redownload your library or rename one of the zotero.sqlite.bak files to zotero.sqlite and find the one that is your database from before the beta upgrade.

adamsmith

Not sure that's right on Zotfile in general @bwiernik? I'm not sure if ZotFile is currently broken for the beta (that's a different topic), but the auto-move feature on import wouldn't pose a problem for the PDF reader -- annotations would only get lost if you use ZotFile's rename manually after annotating.

bwiernik

If a stored attachment is converted to a linked attachment by Zotfile, any annotations will be lost without warning. That's what I was alluding to.

OldSlippers

Thanks! I would use zotfile via the Chrome extension - download PDF’s and create a linked entry in my library. These files would not have any annotations yet. I usually then read and annotate in PDF-Expert and extract annotations into a note in Zotero.

Am not a developer so your instructions to install the normal Zotero (versus the beta version) are double-Dutch to me, sorry. I suppose I can simply delete and install the normal version from the website and then login and sync?

adamsmith

A standard uninstall will leave your data directory in place, so that wouldn't work, no.

There are more detailed instructions here: https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#restoring_from_the_last_upgrade_backup
If those really don't work for you, you can wipe your data folder during unistall I think, but you do want to make sure that you're fully synced and it takes some time to fully re-sync your library.

OldSlippers

Thanks will go through those instructions OR stick to the beta version and just manually add linked files to the database.