how to start this? why can't I find instructions?

mindlessbuddha
What the? I can't find instructions on how to get started with adding my entire pdf collection. I already have a very large and organized pdf library. Isn't it possible to add all the files at once to zotero to get started? Why can't I find any instructions about this? There is no way I can go to every folder and subfolder to and add individual files. I have thousands. I should be able to drag my master folder to zotero and have it add all the pdfs in the subfolders, no? This seems so basic and obvious, I feel like an idiot, but I can't find it!
  • adamsmith
    No, you can't do that.

    There are workarounds -- e.g. you can create a search from your operating system for PDFs in your master folder which will then produce one giant virtual folder, from which you can drag. But if your goal is to get your folder structure reflected in Zotero collections, there is no alternative to doing this one folder at a time.

    It's also, honestly, not going to be a lot of fun to get the metadata for all those items. While you can use https://www.zotero.org/support/retrieve_pdf_metadata
    google has been locking google scholar down pretty tightly, so that's likely be quite a pain.
  • adamsmith
    (I'm also confused how this relates to your post from last year, at which time you clearly already had a sizable library in Zotero)
  • mindlessbuddha
    Thanks. Someone helped me originally set up the files. Then I had a series of system crashes and recoveries, and then the links from zotero to the files on my computer broke so I would get an error about the files being moved or deleted when trying to open from zotero (my problem from before that was never resolved). I've had to restart everything from scratch. This has been such a pain. I want to use zotero, but it doesn't have a file watch system to watch and scan my master pdf folder for additions and changes (I see plenty of comments from people saying they want this in zotero), and it is very difficult to use for a basic end user like me. Mendeley has the file watching and easy to use interface and settings, but it lacks a lot of zotero features and I don't like the interface.

    I wasn't looking for my file architecture to be imported into zotero. I wouldn't expect that. I just wanted to click and drag my master folder to zotero and have it read/scan for all the pdfs in the subfolders and import them to zotero. This work around sounds fine. I don't need the metadata for a lot of these pdfs right now, so I can retrieve the metadata from the main ones I'm using right now as I need them. I'll give this a try.

    thanks for the reply
  • bwiernik
    Note that for adding new items to Zotero, you really shouldn't be downloading PDFs and then adding them manually/retrieving metadata. Instead, you should use the Zotero browser connector to automatically grab the PDF and metadata in one go:

    https://www.zotero.org/support/getting_stuff_into_your_library

    https://www.zotero.org/support/quick_start_guide

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