Storage management for personal library and group library

Hi everyone,

I use zotero since many years for my personal library but now I need help to think how to manage library of different people in my lab and a group library. I have different point to discuss, but sorry in advance if has already been answer in this forum:
Is there a way to have no local storage of pdf for personal or group library ? Is it possible to work with a cloud storage service, especially for store and consult pdf? The zotero server or WebDav server is used for syncing but could it be the only file storage space?

The second point is about group library. I understood that files are store in the zotero storage space of the owner of the group but the syncing will make this library (and pdf) duplicated on each computer of group member. I know it is possible to set the syncing of PDF "on demand" but if for each reading of a PDF the file is load on a computer this represent a lot of file and data in a large shared library.

Thank you in advance

Axel

  • I'm afraid not, no -- you can't have cloud-only storage either for groups or inidividual libraries beyond the download on demand option. I think Zotero is planning some enhancements there (e.g. easy local purging of attachments) but that's all I have for you.
  • Thank you for your help.

    I think in my case the best choice will be to set a custom data directory directly to our cloud drive (to store PDF) and use the zotero server for syncing biliography (without files). Beside that, we could use the zotero storage service for group sharing.

    I will try this solution except if you not recommand this solution.

    Axel
  • You can go to the Zotero storage folder on your computer, search for the string “*.pdf” and then delete the downloaded PDFs en masse. This will remove them from your local computer without removing them from Zotero’s cloud storage (assuming they have been synced). This is the setup I use—download attachments as needed and then periodically delete downloaded files if storage becomes an issue.

    For me, it’s certainly much easier than trying to keep the attachments organized outside of Zotero.
  • You are right, this is a solution but I am not sure that is easy to manage in a lab with more than 10 or 20 persons using zotero and with group sharing. I keep your method in mind.
  • Note also, that if the group members are downloading files as Needed, in my experience, it’s rare to download so many articles that storage space becomes an issue.
  • I think in my case the best choice will be to set a custom data directory directly to our cloud drive (to store PDF) and use the zotero server for syncing biliography (without files).
    You definitely don't want to put the data directory on a cloud drive. If you mean a linked attachment base directory, that's fine.

    We're planning to add additional features for limiting the size of the local cache of downloaded files.
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