Orphaned Items

At the moment when I upgrade the database I get a dozen or so orphaned items. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to which items get orphaned and the 1,500 or so which don't although I thin it has been the same dozen items every time.
Would you like some feedback on orphan files, and if so, what?
  • Orphaned files are storage files in directories named after items that no longer exist in the database. They should be the same each time.

    There shouldn't theoretically be orphaned files, but there are probably a few ways there could be—for example if deleting an item failed to delete an in-use file and the item delete still went through.
  • edited March 14, 2009
    Just had a look at my Orphaned--Files directory - it contains 115 files and 5469 folders - that can't be right, surely? Each file seems to have over a hundred duplicates. Does this also mean that I've got 115 files that Zotero thinks are in its storage folder but won't be able to locate them when I need them? Aargh.
    Regards,
    Jon.

    OK, tried to purge the orphaned-files and got this error
    [JavaScript Error: "File not found for item 4017 after extracting ZIP in Zotero.Sync.Storage._processDownload()" {file: "chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/storage.js" line: 1137}]

    report id. 1573993979
  • OK, this is just getting a bit out of control. Here's an example of a file that is now orphaned. I'm assuming the problem is with the name of the file conflicting. However, the additional annoyance is that file name was produced, I assume by the translator for Springer. If the filename isn't valid for whatever reason, shouldn't the translator not be saving it in this way?

    zotero(3): Extracting SchA¼rmann 1979 Anti-humanism.pdf

    Schürmann 1979 Anti-humanism.pdf

    Regards, Jon.
  • It's possible you're referring to more than one problem here, but it looks like the storage sync was creating directories in orphaned-files every time a changed file was downloaded. Since (if I recall) you've been experiencing a timestamp-related bug that has been causing unnecessary syncing, you'll see a lot of these directories. The latest commit (r4239) should fix this. (Note that this is unrelated to the Purge Orphaned Storage Files command, which refers to files on the storage server.)

    The files for which duplicate folders were created in orphaned-files should still be accessible within Zotero, however (since all it was doing was moving the old folder to orphaned-files and then creating a new one in its place). If you're getting a File Not Found message, that's a separate problem.
  • Hi Dan, yes I think it was two problems, but I think one was responsible for the other. Anyway, I think I've fixed the files that were not being found - I think there were a number of problems, bad characters and sometimes the name of the file not being the same as the displayed name. Anyways, all seems to be in order now, big relief.
    Thanks as ever
    Jon.
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