Unlocatable Files after Mendeley Import

wtlerin

Hello,

I recently installed Zotero on a new laptop and did the Mendeley online import. But many of the attached pdf files seem to be unlocatable, especially the ones that were added to Mendeley further back in time. ("The attached file could not be found at the following path . . .")

I did install Zotero with the Mendeley import on another laptop a while back (I did this with the automatic sync disabled at the time), but ended up deleting the program and all files because my device was running out of local storage.

I'm trying to move fresh from Mendeley to Zotero on the new laptop, but somehow more than half the files aren't accessible.. I'm not sure what the problem is. Can you help me?

wtlerin

+ All files are accessible & synced on Mendeley.

tnajdek

Could you please re-run import with debug enabled and paste debug id? There is no need to delete anything, importer should not create any duplicates.

Also it's worth checking if missing files are actually present in Mendeley online library (not desktop) as there might have been sync issue on that end.

wtlerin

I'll redo the import with the debug log--hoping this will not take too long, since last time it ran for hours.

All files are accessible on Mendeley online.

wtlerin

The import ended with over 50,000 lines of logging, and Zotero froze up when I tried to get the debug ID. I will try to re-do this, but I'm afraid that the size of my library will end up freezing Zotero again.

I now have duplicate entries of (most of) the items that had been added to Mendeley before my previous try with Zotero. One of each pair has an accessible pdf, the other none. How do I clear up the dud duplicates?

Among the items that don't have duplicates, most of these still have unlocatable files. They are all accessible on Mendeley online.

wtlerin

+ The entries that fail to open to an attached file have multiple pdfs attached to the parent item.
One of these pdfs is the correct one and opens up well when I click on it.
The other pdfs are duds, and I have no idea where these came from.

Can you help me clear this up?

dstillman

It looks like you previously imported with the Zotero beta before Zotero 6 came out. Various bugs have been fixed since then, including some that could cause duplicates on reimports.

I suspect you'll find that the attachments with missing files were from last fall, and those are missing because you added them on another computer and didn't sync the files. So the attachment items synced to this computer but without any files.

If all the attachments imported now are working, you could create a saved search for all PDFs that were created more than x days ago, do a Select All to select just the matching items, and delete them.

wtlerin

Thank you so much!

I just have a few last questions:

There are still some empty parent items (with the dud pdfs removed). How can I clear these up?

If I re-do the Mendeley import, will the duplicated entries with missing file attachments turn up again in my library?

Also, if I want to use Zotero on an iPad with linked files on Onedrive, is there any way of rearranging all the imported pdf files on my local storage to do make them accessible as linked files? Or would you recommend using the Zotero storage & web sync?

dstillman

There are still some empty parent items (with the dud pdfs removed). How can I clear these up?

What do you mean by empty parent items?

If I re-do the Mendeley import, will the duplicated entries with missing file attachments turn up again in my library?

It's a little hard to say for sure given that the original import was done during the beta. But probably not.

Or would you recommend using the Zotero storage & web sync?

Yes, we recommend the Zotero iOS app, which works with Zotero Storage, for the most seamless experience. Along with all the other benefits of the official iOS app, see Annotations in Database for an explanation of the benefits of having Zotero sync annotations.

wtlerin

I deleted the matching items through the advanced search.
But among the duplicate entries (previously, one of these had an accessible pdf, the other a ghost pdf that wasn't locatable), there are still parent items that either have no attached files, or contain extracted annotations only (probably from the beta importer?)
I could delete them as I go, no big problem, but just to make the library cleaner!


Also, is there any way of using linked files with the iOS app? I would like to access files directly from a Onedirve storage location, but Zotero's (otherwise excellent!) file organization makes it difficult for me to do that.

dstillman

You can add the Attachments column (by right-clicking on the column headers) and sort by that to easily see what items have attachments. You can also press + in the items list to expand all items.

The iOS app only supports stored files.