enhancement request: link to file details

When I link an entry to a file, Zotero cleverly reads the file's meta-data (if present) and from it creates a new entry. Clever, but this is not what I want. It leaves me with the entry from which I invoked link to file and an additional new entry, usually identical in all respects other than that the file is now linked to the new entry. Please, link it to the entry I started from. Otherwise I have to delete that one or merge it with the new one. It's worse when the file does not have meta-data. Then Zotero creates a new, pretty useless entry, which can be hard to find (not having the same e.g. name or authors as the entry from which I started), and is also essentially useless. In this circumstance, I have to drag the attachment from this new bogus entry to the entry that I started from, then delete the bogus entry.
Please, simplify this. Attach the file to the entry I started from. If the meta-data I have in that entry disagrees with whatever you may find in the file, that's on me. I would happily accept the occasional attendant error if it avoided all the complexity every time I use Link to File (which I use a lot).
Thanks,
Jim
  • An associated problem is that while Zotero is processing the meta-data from the new file, it discards my current status (what subcollection I'm in, my current search results). Please, stop trying so hard. Just link it to the entry I identified, without making other changes.
  • I think this is a misunderstanding.

    The New Item menu isn't contextual — nothing in there has anything to do with what you have selected in the items list. If you use Link to File from there, it will ignore what you have selected, add a new standalone attachment, and then run metadata retrieval to try to create a parent item.

    If you want to add a linked file to an existing item, you right-click on the item or use the paperclip menu and choose Attach Link to File.
  • Misunderstanding indeed. Thanks for the tip. Works fine.
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