Zotero Locator Issue

ryancating

Hello,

I am using the standalone version of Zotero and recently had to reimport my library from a different laptop. I successfully imported all of my files/tags/metadata but couldn't open any of the underlying PDFs. Upon further investigation, it looks like the backup appended the date/time to each of the files which is the primary source of confusion. The locator is working properly, but something on my export/backup end went wrong which is causing a headache. I have approximately 5,300 items so I'm hoping I don't have to manually change everything. Any guidance would be appreciated.

Zotero Version: 6.0.8


Sincerely,

Ryan

adamsmith

So that sounds like you need to fix the filenames? I'd use a tool like the bulk rename utility (https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/), create a saved search/virtual folder of all PDFs in your storage folder, and remove the date from those filenames using regular expressions.

I don't think you can fix this using Zotero, since the problem are the filenames, not the links in Zotero.

ryancating

Thanks so much for the confirmation and the recommendation for that bulk rename utility, it worked like a charm once I figured out the interface! Everything back to working again