Translators

Oxa
I recently installed Zotero Standalone 4.0.29.17 on a new computer. On opening the program the first time, I changed the data directory location to a folder in my Documents directory. Then I closed Zotero and copied my old .sqlite files to that folder. I reopened Zotero, checked to see that everything migrated OK (it did), then closed Zotero again. I noticed that my new Zotero data directory now had three new folders: locate, styles, and translators. These folders are also found in the default Zotero directory: C:\Users\Oxa\AppData\Roaming\Zotero\Zotero\Profiles\4f4jo2jv.default\zotero (Windows 10). The first two were identical to the same folders in my Documents directory, but the third differed in the number of translator files it contained. The translators folder in the Documents directory contains 348 translator files, whereas the one in the AppData directory contains 491 translator files.

- Why the difference?
- Should I copy the missing translator files from the AppData directory to the Documents directory?
  • adamsmith
    Hard to say what'd explain the difference. It could be that Zotero just ships with ~350 and updates the rest from the web. Seems odd, but possible. In any case, 491 is the right number.

    You can copy over the files, but you should also be able to do this by using either just "Update now" in the General tab of the Zotero preferences or if that doesn't work, a combination of "Reset Translators" from the Advanced tab of the Zotero preferences followed by update now.

    (Also, unless you don't have attached files in Zotero, you should also copy your storage folder to the new data directory locaction).
  • Oxa
    "Update now" did nothing. "Reset translators" reduced the number from 348 to 251. Guess I'll copy...

    "storage folder"???
  • adamsmith
    and reset followed by update now? That really should work.

    If you have attachments in Zotero (but only if) there'd be a folder called "storage" at the same level as "locate" "translators" etc.
  • adamsmith
    oh -- and maybe check write permissions on that folder.
  • Oxa
    I have attachments, but they're in their own folders, not in a separate Zotero folder (no "storage" folder), which has created a problem I hadn't yet seen: Although the folders are the same on my new computer vs. my old one, the directory tree is different (e.g., C:\ drive vs D:\ drive). Is there any easy way to change the links in a batch, aside from doing them one by one?
  • adamsmith
    (Just for clarity's sake, in Zotero terms those would be links, not attachments).

    To fix this in batch, you can use the Zutilo add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/zutilo-utility-for-zotero/

    For the future, you may want to just set a relative link base directory in the preferences under advanced>files and folders, which you can then just adjust on any new computer.
  • Oxa
    Thanks!
  • dstillman
    Just to note, it's better not to store the Zotero data directory in the Documents folder, which might be synced to the cloud (now or in the future), resulting in database corruption. Zotero 5.0 will use a "Zotero" directory at the root of your home directory, so that's what I'd recommend.
  • Gurdas_Sandhu
    So, Dan, for Windows users the recommended location is:
    C:\Users\UserName\Zotero\

    and NOT:
    C:\Users\UserName\Documents\Zotero
  • dstillman
    Correct.
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