I dont want any pdfs to be imported to Zotero

Hi,

I have a library of references in a different ref manager software, which I would like to import to zotero. While importing the library, it looks like zotero starts attaching also pdf files to most of the references. Is there a simple way how to import just the references without linking or attaching any pdfs?

Right now, it seems that during the import, zotero looks for pdfs (or finds old links to pdfs?) in my hdd and then attaches them to the reference and stores them into zotero folder. I dont want any of this, because 1) the import is too slow (runs at the speed 15 references per min), 2) it creates giant folder with duplicates of pdf files on my HDD which I dont need, 3) I would like to use zotero only in a very simply way - to look up for a reference (using just a search within the bibliographic information, no need for search within pdf fulltext), insert the reference into the text processor, and then to format bibliography.

So I dont want zotero to handle, attach, link, store, search, sync ... anything to do with pdf files. Could it work this way?

  • edited October 26, 2017
    Which reference management program are you importing from and what export format (e.g., RIS) are you using?
  • The reason Zotero imports the files is that they're linked in the export from your reference manager -- it doesn't go searching anything by itself. There's no simple way to prevent Zotero from doing that (though you _can_ prevent it from attaching PDFs when importing from the web -- there's a preference for that in the General tab of the preferences).

    The easiest way would be if you could prevent the links from showing up in the export (or remove them from there). If that's not an option, it's possible to modify Zotero's import script, but that involves modifying a javascript file -- it's not rocket science and we can help you with it, but not exactly what I'd recommend as an entry point into Zotero.
  • bwiernik: I want to import from Mendeley, I tried both RIS and Bibtex, but the same issue
    adamsmith: thank you very much for the explanation, why this is happening. Do you think it would help to go through the entire import process includig attaching PDFs, and then remove PDFs using the advanced search as described here https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/35712/removing-pdfs-to-free-up-space
    ?
  • I think that might be the easiest thing for you to do, yes. Everything else I can think of involves small amounts of scripting.
Sign In or Register to comment.