Files stored in multiple locations?

ddileonardo
Zotero seems to be storing the same pdf in multiple locations.

Data Directory Location
C:\Program Files (x86)\Zotero Standalone\data\

My data directory is set to custom. I'm not really sure why as I don't think this is something I would have changed. However as this is a pretty logical location, I don't plan to change it without a very good reason.

PDFs I have stored on Zotero go to

C:\Program Files (x86)\Zotero Standalone\data\storage\,

with each pdf going into a separate folder that is automatically created with a name like 6HCG4BP6 so the full path looks like:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Zotero Standalone\data\storage\6HCG4BP6.

But if I do a Windows search for a particular pdf, I find it is in multiple folders in the path
C:\Program Files (x86)\Zotero Standalone\data\storage\

For example the same pdf is found in:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Zotero Standalone\data\storage\6HCG4BP6
C:\Program Files (x86)\Zotero Standalone\data\storage\N2RFFUH6
C:\Program Files (x86)\Zotero Standalone\data\storage\NC5R8IBZ
C:\Program Files (x86)\Zotero Standalone\data\storage\VZV9F54B

The pdf used in this example is found in two group libraries.

Does anyone know what is causing this? This has the potential to exponentially increase the space required for zotero citations.
  • bwiernik
    Zotero doesn't create multiple copies of the pdf on the disk, so what you are probably seeing is that you have duplicate files stored in your Zotero library. These might be one of the following:

    1) You have duplicate items. You can check these using the "Duplicate Items" view in the left pane of the Zotero window. Check both your My Library and your Group Libraries.
    2) You have multiple copies of the PDF attached to one item. This might happen if you previously had duplicate items that you merged (Zotero will keep all attachments if you do that). You can check this by searching for that item and expanding it with the little arrow on the side or by typing '+'. You can check this for your whole library by selecting all the items (Ctrl+A) and then typing '+'.
    3) You have multiple copies of the item in different group libraries. These are treated as completely separate items (including distinct attachment files).

    You can also see where each of these different duplicate PDFs are stored in your Zotero library by searching for the character strings at the end of the file paths (e.g., 6HCG4BP6) in the quick search bar in Zotero.
  • dstillman
    My data directory is set to custom. I'm not really sure why as I don't think this is something I would have changed. However as this is a pretty logical location, I don't plan to change it without a very good reason.
    No, you definitely don't want to store your data there — that's the program directory, which should be able to be removed at any time. It's not a safe place for data. You should move it to C:\Users\_username_\Zotero, which is the new default location in Zotero 5.0.
  • giacomo.mercuriali
    I have found a similar problem, together with the person with which I am sharing a group library. I do not understand why if I search for a particular .pdf in the Mac Finder I find two duplicates in different Zotero storage folder. At the moment, neither of the three options proposed by @bwiernik is the case.

  • adamsmith
    edited November 27, 2017
    that sounds like you have an old copy of your data directory. You probably can just identify which directory your currently using https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data and then delete the other one.
    (Edit: this is assuming by different storage folder you mean actually different folder with the name "storage". If you have different folders with the the same file within the same storage directory, I'd be pretty sure one of the options described by bwiernik applies but we'd have to know the folder names)
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