Would there be a problem with storing PDFs on Dropbox/Google Drive and linking?

wonblee
For the few very large, image PDFs that I don't want to see take up precious storage, I'm thinking of moving them to a synced folder (be it Dropbox, Skydrive or Google Drive) and attaching it as a link to the file on the synced folder. So, this is not using a synced folder as the local database storage, which I believe is strongly advised against.

Would there be an issue with my plan? Would I run into the similar kind of problem (data corruption) by attaching a link to a PDF file on a folder that itself will be synced across different computers? (By the way, I'll have the synced folder in the same location - e.g., My Documents\Google Drive - so the link will work across different computers.)
  • fbennett
    There should be no problem with that.
  • aurimas
    There should also not be any problem (as far as data corruption goes, though you may encounter some other limitations with this approach) if only your attachment folder is on Dropbox/Google Drive.

    What is strongly discouraged is putting your entire data directory on a synced folder (i.e. "{firefox profile}/zotero". If you want to/know how to create symbolic links on your OS, you can symlink the "{firefox profile}/zotero/storage" folder to a folder on Dropbox/Google Drive.
  • wonblee
    edited November 9, 2012
    There should also not be any problem (as far as data corruption goes, though you may encounter some other limitations with this approach) if only your attachment folder is on Dropbox/Google Drive.
    Wow, if it can be done seamlessly, that's huge. Although I'm happy with Zotero storage in general, I do run into non-indexed PDFs from time to time (as I described in another thread). Storing PDFs on Google Drive will solve that issue. More importantly, Google's capability to OCR and index even graphic PDFs is really superb and has no competition. Because Zotero lacks OCR, I have to OCR image PDFs myself using Adobe Acrobat for the benefit of Zotero, which is very laborious and time-consuming. Google Drive can streamline that too. I can also use Google's native mobile app to view a PDF on the go without third-party mobile apps. Wow.. These are just some of the benefits of having my PDFs on Google Drive (and linked to Zotero) off the top of my mind.

    I have no idea what symlink is, but I'll definitely have to look into it.

    What "limitations with this approach" did you have in mind? I'm really thrilled at this idea.
  • adamsmith
    mronkko has written up a nice summary on symlinks&dropbox on his ZotPad support pages:
    http://zotpad.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/103395-what-is-a-symbolic-link-and-why-should-i-use-one-w
  • wonblee
    edited November 10, 2012
    I'm reporting for posterity's sake:

    Using symlink with a Google Drive folder hasn't worked out. (My strong preference for Google Drive over Dropbox or other synced folder solutions is explained above.)

    First of all, with Google Drive, you have to originate from a Google Drive folder and create a target in Zotero/Storage. Otherwise, the zotero storage folders won't appear in the web-based interface of Google Drive. I have no idea why it shouldn't but that's what it is.

    Secondly, Google Drive is not good at syncing all those strange file types that inevitably result from snapshots of webpages. This has happened with Google Drive in the past, so I'm not surprised. In my experience, syncing non-document files is not so problematic in Dropbox.

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