Upgrade StoragePDF files disappearing from "Storage" folder
Hello all,
In the last year, I've experienced quite a few alterations in my Zotero workflow (since switching to their online sync service). I was previously hosting my PDFs in Google Drive and experiencing no issues. I decided to switch to support Zotero.
However, as you can see in the attached video, I have several thousands of PDFs BUT a fluctuating subset only appear in the "Storage" folder, depending on the last time I opened it in Zotero or another PDF reader. For instance, I have in my Zotero Library a PDF from Cole et al. 2020. You can see in the video that, when I search for all PDF contained in the "Storage" folder, I find only 421 items and Cole et al. 2020 isn't one of them. Then, I open the Cole et al. 2020 pdf in Zotero and it appears in my search results.
Video: https://dropover.cloud/ab937e
Since it first started doing this, I have done EVERYTHING I could to fix this issue. I even changed from a 2019 MacBook Pro to a 2021 M1 Max MacBook Pro. I am on Monterey.
I am aware it does not necessarily mean it is Zotero's problem. But I have also several thousands of markdown documents managed in other apps (Obsidian) that do not show this behaviour.
I am in dire need of help as I don't want to abandon Zotero but I am considering reverting to third party cloud storage seems I am pretty sure that this is causing the issue. I started as soon as I went form Google Drive to Zotero's own Sync.
In the last year, I've experienced quite a few alterations in my Zotero workflow (since switching to their online sync service). I was previously hosting my PDFs in Google Drive and experiencing no issues. I decided to switch to support Zotero.
However, as you can see in the attached video, I have several thousands of PDFs BUT a fluctuating subset only appear in the "Storage" folder, depending on the last time I opened it in Zotero or another PDF reader. For instance, I have in my Zotero Library a PDF from Cole et al. 2020. You can see in the video that, when I search for all PDF contained in the "Storage" folder, I find only 421 items and Cole et al. 2020 isn't one of them. Then, I open the Cole et al. 2020 pdf in Zotero and it appears in my search results.
Video: https://dropover.cloud/ab937e
Since it first started doing this, I have done EVERYTHING I could to fix this issue. I even changed from a 2019 MacBook Pro to a 2021 M1 Max MacBook Pro. I am on Monterey.
I am aware it does not necessarily mean it is Zotero's problem. But I have also several thousands of markdown documents managed in other apps (Obsidian) that do not show this behaviour.
I am in dire need of help as I don't want to abandon Zotero but I am considering reverting to third party cloud storage seems I am pretty sure that this is causing the issue. I started as soon as I went form Google Drive to Zotero's own Sync.
There's currently literally no code in Zotero that can delete a file on disk without deleting the item in your library, so the files absolutely aren't "disappearing" — once you open them on a given computer (in "as needed" mode) or sync them down (in "at sync time" mode), they'll be present there unless something outside of Zotero deletes them. An upcoming version of Zotero will add the ability to have Zotero delete local copies of uploaded files to limit the amount of disk space when using "as needed" mode (though it sounds like that's not something you'll want).
You can tell if a file is actually present locally by enabling the Attachments column in the middle pane of Zotero. If there's a filled circle, the file is present locally. If there's an empty circle, it isn't. If Spotlight says something different, it's lying to you.