PDf Download Issue

pcalias
Hi,

For some reason, when I upgraded to the newest version of Zotero, the PDF's that I have access to will not automatically upload. I have to download it first, then transfer to Zotero by clicking on the PDF symbol. In the old version, it uploaded the PDF and citation info all at once. Is there a setting I need to adjust?

Thanks,

Perry
  • LiborA
    Can you provide problematic URL?
    Generally. It is not "problem of Zetro" but of translator for a specific website.
  • bwiernik
    For example, ScienceDirect recently changed its website code that makes its extremely difficult for programs like Zotero to automatically grab the PDF when importing. If there is a specific URL you are having a problem with, we can see if there is a way anything Zotero can do on its end.
  • pcalias
    Here is an example, and yes it was Science Direct.
    http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.lib.umb.edu/science/article/pii/S0169409X16302289
  • LiborA
    Yes, this is exactly the case, what @bwiernik described.
  • pcalias
    Thank you both. One question while I have your attention, How do I shut off the snapshot downloads? It seems an unnecessary item.

    Again, Thanks
  • LiborA
    edited August 2, 2017
    You can disable it in preferences (in Zotero and also in connector)
  • bwiernik
    The folks who maintain the Zotero translators are trying to get PDF downloads with ScienceDirect working again, but it looks like it will be quite difficult.
  • dstillman
    This should be fixed, though — we pushed out this fix several days ago, and PDFs save from that page for me.

    @pcalias, go to the General pane of the Zotero preferences and make sure "Automatically check for updated translators and styles" is checked, and click "Update now" and make sure it doesn't show an error. Then go to the Zotero Connector preferences (how you get to those depends on your browser) and click Reset Translators in the Advanced pane. Then reload the ScienceDirect page and try again, and provide a Debug ID for a save attempt if that doesn't save the PDF.
  • dstillman
    Obviously, also make sure you that have access to that PDF from the webpage — institutions don't always have subscriptions for all PDFs on ScienceDirect.
  • pcalias
    dstillman, I did everything suggested and it sometimes downloads but I can live with that. Now adding or modifying Zotero takes forever. It is extremely slow. Even just dragging and dropping a file into the library is slow. My library is ~14K in size. Is it too big for Zotero?
  • pcalias
    Even just renaming a file is taking more than 5 min...what is happening????
  • dstillman
    Provide a Debug ID for an operation that's slow.
  • pcalias
    D92713791
  • dstillman
    Try temporarily disabling full-text indexing in the Sync pane of the preferences.

    It looks like full-text indexing is running in the background — or what should be the background — and slowing things down for you. Zotero should stop doing that when you're actually interacting with the computer, so clearly something is wrong, and we'll have to investigate.
  • pcalias
    did that, still took almost a min to delete something from Zotero. I look forward to any suggestions
  • dstillman
    Restart Zotero with that disabled, and provide another Debug ID if it's still slow.
  • pcalias
    D2146539511
  • pcalias
    faster, but still slow
  • dstillman
    That's the file modification check Zotero performs on the first sync of the session, when you manually click the Sync button, or on auto-sync after at least three hours. We'd like to speed that up, but that shouldn't affect your normal usage of Zotero.
  • dstillman
    edited August 8, 2017
    Oh, but also, you appear to have your Zotero data directory on an external drive or network share, which is almost certainly slowing down file access and would exacerbate both of these issues. If you can move your data directory to the local hard drive, you'll likely have a better experience.
  • pcalias
    The drive is "local", it is connected by 3.0 USB. The hard drive in the laptop can't handle all the files
  • pcalias
    The speed it is running at now works for me. Before was unbearable
  • dstillman
    Yeah, this behavior hasn't changed since 4.0 — Zotero checks all local files for modifications to know whether to upload them, and it does that at the times I explain above. On an external drive (even USB 3.0), that will unfortunately be slower. But if you're using auto-sync, then this generally won't be an issue.

    We'll look into the full-text indexing issue and post again once there's a fix.
  • pcalias
    Thanks!
  • pcalias
    just received an error message with this report ID: 1488356684. Not sure if it is related to my other issues.

    Thanks,

    Perry
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