When I click on "remove article from collection", it doesn't remove the article

tiara19

Hello, this was just working for me perfectly fine as I was organizing folders. Now, when I click "remove from collection", nothing happens and the article is still there.

This is the Zotero App on Mac

dstillman

Most likely you have View → Show Items from Subcollection enabled and the item isn't actually in the collection you're looking at.

tiara19

no, that's not it. I am trying to remove it from the entire collection. It is still in another collection so I can't delete it to the trash entirely. But it won't "leave" - not in any sub collection.

dstillman

Can you provide a Debug ID for the operation in question?

dstillman

But I also don't know what you mean by "I can't delete it to the trash". You can always move an item to the trash. Its being in another collection makes no difference there.

tiara19

Hi- when I put the item in the trash from that collection, it deleted it from the other collection too.

I will try to debug ID once I have submitted the draft

tiara19

Here is the Debug ID! I worked through showing how it won't remove from the collection, and then I showed how putting it in the trash from the collection actually deleted it from all of my collections. Thanks!

D601514552

dstillman

Item 788 not a child of collection 45

This is almost certainly just what I say above — you have "Show Items from Subcollections" enabled and you're trying to remove from one of the parent collections. Turn that setting off and you can see where the collection actually exists. (You can also highlight the containing collection.)

tiara19

Okay now I'm starting to understand....I know I have that enabled- I am using the parent as the "master list" so I'm searching for the article there and trying to remove from the collection so that it removes from the sub collection too. Just easier for me to manage. Are you saying this doesn't work? I would have to basically start in the smallest sub collection and then work backwards to get it out of the collection (if it's in multiple folders, for example)?

adamsmith

Are you saying this doesn't work? I would have to basically start in the smallest sub collection and then work backwards to get it out of the collection (if it's in multiple folders, for example)?

That's correct, yes.
I think it's an interesting question on whether this should work differently -- I can see the case for this -- but currently "Remove from collection" only removes an item from the collection it is actually in.

tiara19

Adam,

It IS interesting especially since I've been considering it all one collection all this time (meaning I consider all the subfolders part of the collection). Could you help me make sense of this too- when I send something to the trash, it removes the article out of EVERY collection it is in- that is how it's supposed to work?

adamsmith

when I send something to the trash, it removes the article out of EVERY collection it is in- that is how it's supposed to work?

Yes -- think of collections like playlists or hierarchical tags, not like folders: an item can be in any number of collections (including in multiple sub-collections of the same parent collection, say), but it's still one single item, which means that putting it in the trash removes it everywhere.

dstillman

I would have to basically start in the smallest sub collection and then work backwards to get it out of the collection (if it's in multiple folders, for example)?

@tiara19: Not really. As I say, you can just highlight the collections the item is in and go remove it from those.

I think it's an interesting question on whether this should work differently -- I can see the case for this

Yeah, we've been working to at least clarify this — it's certainly a bug now that it prompts to remove from the parent and then doesn't remove — and I suggested that we could instead just say in the prompt that the item will be removed from all subcollections. I think we'd have to acknowledge that approximately no one will read that, so some people will certainly remove items from subcollections by mistake, but I think not doing this somewhat undermines the concept of "Show Items from Subcollections" (as evidenced by @tiara19 saying that they think of it as a single collection).

tiara19

@adamsmith @dstillman thank you both so much.

The highlight command is a game changer for me. If it helps, I WOULD read that prompt and if it had existed, it would've helped me understand the actual structure of the folders. Because in the main collection folder, I can see everything in all sub collections (this is how I verify whether I've already added a new article I have found, for example) so it leads me to believe I can actually delete it or move it from that spot. When, in reality, I can't. But I can see both sides. ANYWAY, thanks for the help!!

dstillman

In Zotero 6.0.10, available now, removing an item from a collection will remove it from all subcollections when “Show Items from Subcollections” is enabled.