Files outside Zotero - again

charltond
I apologize for bringing this up but I am at a loss. I have a modest collection, maybe 50 files (mainly pdf), same number of notes and a dozen web links and page captures. I am running 3.8 on both a Windows and Linux platform (two computers). I have been synced to the zotero site since last November. I took up my project again this month. I found (after updates to 3.8) that I do not have "storage" folders either of the profiles for each computer. I have tried creating folders labeled "storage" in the profile folder and copying the files from a file backup into that folder. When I look at the collection, the panel shows a link to the file. However, when I clink on the "view" or "open" button, I get the above titled message. Even when I navigate to the exact file through the "locate" button, Zotero continues to give me the same error message. It is as though some other information is needed to find the files thorugh the collection manager. BTW the sqlite files are present.

On beta.zotero.org, I think my sync account is valid. I can see the notes, and web links but no files seem to be present. I do not know if this is unexpected.

Is there any way to rebuild the connection between the collection and the files which were added to it? I have read the instructions on "Zotero Data Fundamentals" and do not find this issue is addressed.

Thanks for your help and I regret bringing this matter back to the forum

David Charlton
  • RintzeRintze
    Note that files stored in your local Zotero library are not synced to the Zotero servers. More info:

    http://www.zotero.org/support/sync
  • charltond
    to Rintze;

    Thanks for the link. That clears up one point, the absence of files in the Zotero server. Now on to the question of files or other content in the "storage" folder.
  • charltond
    OK, more information, probably not new to others. I dragged a file into the collection from my back up file directory. I "attached" it to the appropriate note in the collection. Then I had the note and two links to the file. I deleted the one link which did not work. Now the note and its attachement are as it shojuld be. I did this twice more.

    I went back to the "storage" folder and observed that zotero placed a copy of each file in separate new folders each with a new random eight character alpha-numeric name. I guess that is the missing information found in the database but not avaiable for reconstruction.

    In any case, I plan to go back through the file and reattach them to the notes and references so I guess for now this problem is worked around. Is there no way to recreate the folders in storage from the data available?

This is an old discussion that has not been active in a long time. Instead of commenting here, you should start a new discussion. If you think the content of this discussion is still relevant, you can link to it from your new discussion.