I copied my "zotero" folder from an old PC to a new one and my pdf were not linked correctly

ulloao

I saved the zotero folder from my old computer (from somewhere like, //D:/user/zotero) to move to a new to my new PC, so that all my pdf would be moved (I didn't "export" then "import"). I added the saved "zotero" folder to my new user folder, but when I install zotero the folder gets replaced and all files deleted. I tried adding the folder back on but it still not syncing the files with my desktop library so I cannot open my .pdf.
If I sync my library from the web, I get a message telling me that my .pdf are not present in some new folder.
any suggestions? maybe there was a software upgrade in between my move?

dstillman

when I install zotero the folder gets replaced and all files deleted

Not sure what you mean by this. If you copy the Zotero data directory from the other computer and put it in the correct place, you'll see exactly the same data on this computer.

See Transferring a Library.

ulloao

I did that. However, when I try opening a .pdf in zotero it says it cannot be found in the folder it should be in.

dstillman

If you copy the complete data directory to the correct location, stored files that were available on the other computer will be available on this computer. If they're not, you did something wrong with the transfer.

If you were using linked files, you would have to have configured the linked attachment base directory correctly on both computers.

The file-not-found dialog shows you the exact path where it's looking, so it should be clear which one is the case.

ulloao

for example, if I see the following dialog C:\Users\my.name\Zotero\storage\MIMVAJAC\name_of_document
and I look for the folder MIMVAJAC it doesn't exist in the folder of the old computer.

ulloao

ok, i think the solution to this glitch is just searching for each of as needed. at least they were all moved. I don't know why the folder names were changed

ulloao

each pdf as needed*

dstillman

If you just copied the entire data directory, the folder names would obviously all be the same — it would just literally be the same folder structure and files. So you used export/import and didn't transfer the files, you're using a different database, or the file was missing on the old computer as well.

If you still have your Zotero data directory on the old computer, you should just transfer it again properly.

ulloao

I did not use export/import. I just copied the folder onto a thumb drive and then copied it to my new pc.
I did notice a few additional files on the Zotero folder of my new computer that were not in the folder I copied.
Maybe a zotero update caused this...?

dstillman

Zotero did not change your files.

Again, if you copy the entire folder structure you’ll have the exact same library with all your files. If that didn’t happen, you did something wrong and you should try again.

ulloao

ok, for anyone reading that cannot just "try again" (I don't have the old pc) here is my recap and solution:
1) I copied my "zotero" folder from the drive of an old PC onto a thumb drive, some time passed, then moved the folder to my new computer in the same analogous location and installed zotero, then synced to online lib.

2) none of the pdf files I had in my zotero folder were being foundd when clicking on the zotero entries even though the pdf were in the "files" folder within the "zotero" folder (maybe I had an older version of zotero since time had passed between computers or something along those lines). Zotero was looking for the pdf on bogus folders within the "storage" folder.

3) an ok solution was to move the folders in "files" to "storage"> when I want a pdf I click on the zotero entry and read the name of the file from the error message> then I search for the pdf of the file in the zotero "storage" folder. this solves the problem for that individual file. I have also been deleting the bogus folders within "storage" as I do this. it's not great, but if you only search for a few pdf files as needed it's not
very time consuming.

side note. if you're worried about duplicate files run a clean-up program like cclean

dstillman

move the folders in "files" to "storage"

OK, that explains it. This isn't a data directory — you didn't actually copy your data directory. You have an export, which would contain an .rdf file and a 'files' folder.

When you placed that in the data directory location and started Zotero, none of those files were actually used in any way. That's why you had an empty library when first starting Zotero. When you synced, it just pulled down your data from the online library.

And that would actually be fine — syncing is one of the two methods for transferring a library on the page I linked to above — but in your case you also appear to have previously used Purge Storage in My Library, which wiped out all files in your online library, making them unavailable to download to this computer.

So all your files were missing, and copies would exist within the 'files' folder from the export.

So you can delete the .rdf file — if you actually imported that you would duplicate your entire library, which you definitely don't want to do — and once you've relinked all the files, you can delete the 'files' folder.