Upgrade StorageStill having trouble with 5.0
I was told to install the Zotero connector to make it run properly.
I have firefox, and was using 4.0 within firefox ok. Now I was transferred to 5.0 automatically. The libraries transferred ok, but....
Now when I d/l a paper I only get the PDF transferred I have to go to Zotero and manually pull down the metadata for it, it doesn't transfer automatically.
The only options I get when I click d/l are save and open PDF. No Zotero option.
NOW... I can d/l the connector as instructed, but it's a Chrome connector, not a firefox one. That isn't going to work, is it?
And when I try to download the firefox connector I get an error message telling me it's not a PDF & Adobe can't open it (I'm not surprised!) - so what do I use to open the executable filefox file I've d/led?
I have firefox, and was using 4.0 within firefox ok. Now I was transferred to 5.0 automatically. The libraries transferred ok, but....
Now when I d/l a paper I only get the PDF transferred I have to go to Zotero and manually pull down the metadata for it, it doesn't transfer automatically.
The only options I get when I click d/l are save and open PDF. No Zotero option.
NOW... I can d/l the connector as instructed, but it's a Chrome connector, not a firefox one. That isn't going to work, is it?
And when I try to download the firefox connector I get an error message telling me it's not a PDF & Adobe can't open it (I'm not surprised!) - so what do I use to open the executable filefox file I've d/led?
Regarding the transition from Zotero 4 to 5, see here if you haven’t already:
https://www.zotero.org/blog/zotero-5-and-firefox-faq/
It does the same!
I click the button to download from the web on the chrome tool bar - (it shows as a small pdf icon) the download takes place - but is a pdf file. THEN when I go into Zotero and right click the file I just downloaded, I can manually retrieve the metadata and 99% of the time I get it, making the zotero reference complete.
But - what is going on? Is this how 5.0 is now going to work? with no automatic retrieval of metadata? This is going to slow my research up somewhat. Is this a feature or a bug?
So... I got your reply to install the firefox connector. I tried and it failed. Don't know why. When I try to d/l again, I get an error message saying the download is not a PDF file and it fails the open after the down load.
I've tried unpacking the download for the firefox connector, and by right clicking the download I can change the opening app FROM Adobe to the unpacker programme (I had to download an unpacker app to do this) but can't find an executable to run. Can you give me a clue what the executable is called, and what the file extension is, I might have better luck then.
I really don't know what else to do, and I'm running out of ways to try to explain the pickle I'm in. This problem is not just in Firefox, but in Chrome. It seems something isn't switched on to trigger the automatic retrieval of metadata. This only started happening after I was updated to 5.0.... even then at the beginning it was all ok, and working as I was used to. This problem started last week when my libraries were automatically reinstalled by Zotero. I didn't ask for them to be. It just flashed up reinstalling, or some such message. Is there a toggle that needs flipping to turn on automatic retrieval of metadata and put the zorteo option into the box that appears with the open/save options I now ONLY have? There is no option to choose zotero in that box.
And there used to be...
I doubt you'd be able to follow a link if I put one up, as you won't have access permissions to do so. I just checked Zotero, and there was a security update flagged, so I'll hope for the best and check access after that?
......(Nope, no joy!)
Well it hasn't solved my problem. Here's a link I pulled up from Google Scholar.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/38654049/2-Investigation_of_fibre_reinforced_mud_brick_as_a_building_material.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1512087367&Signature=GtG2JNA4kSREqMh0Xv55f7dmTME=&response-content-disposition=inline; filename=Investigation_of_fibre_reinforced_mud_br.pdf
So...in the top right of the Firefox screen, after I click to access the document from the Google Scholar search screen, instead of a zotero icon, there's a PDF icon.
When I click this I get a pdf downloaded into my zotero library. When I right-click the PDF file in the zotero library I get a menu pop up and one choice is to retrieve metadata. When I click THIS, then the metadata is downloaded and I have a 'fully referenced' zotero entry.
The file as loaded by the click on the google scholar page loads onto a black background and a set of buttons on the top right too. One is the download button (page with a downward arrow?) Normally, up until now, then a small screen pops up asking do I want to Open (in Adobe), Save (to my downloads file) or zotero reference the file I want to load into the zotero library. (That's how it's worked up until a few days ago).
At the moment I only have 2 options in this little screen - to Open (pdf) or Save (to my disk) - I can't save to the zotero library.
NOW... bweirnik (up the page) told me I have to download a firefox desktop app (the firefox connector?) But I don't seem able to do this. My PC keeps telling me it's a corrupt PDF file and Adobe can't open it.
If you go to an article there like this one:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001879114000190
(you'll need to either be on campus or go through your library to have access to the PDF) and click on the Save to Zotero icon at the top, Zotero will download both the metadata _and_ the PDF. That's the standard way of using Zotero. Downloading PDFs and then retrieving metadata has always been a second best and has never given you information as complete as this (e.g. doesn't include an abstract & often misses the DOI).
The behavior for downloading PDFs is as expected. It won't change. The change is explained on the FAQ page we've now pointed you to several times. Have you read that? If it is not clear, could you ask specific questions instead of just repeating what you're seeing? Downloading PDFs using the save to zotero icon (the PDF icon you describe) takes exactly one click more -- it'd be great to avoid this, but I also just don't buy that that has a giant impact on any workflow.
As I said above, you do not need the Firefox connector for this. If you want it back, we can try to troubleshoot this (it sounds like something in your Firefox profile is corrupted), but it does exactly the same as the Chrome Connector, so you will not see any change between the two.
But this is not my problem.
I like Zotero 5.0, I see the worth of being free to use any of the 3 browsers I have.
I have tried to download the Firefox connector, but I am told the file is corrupt as it's not a pdf (for some reason Adobe is the default app trying to open the connector. I don't know why Adobe has got involved, I didn't ask it to). The update from 4 to 5 didn't install the connector, and didn't mention I needed to do this. When I installed both connectors, Firefox is corrupted, but Chrome installed successfully.
SO... this is what's happening when I download a paper.
I log into my UEL library (and have gone through all the password permissions to get to a scientific journal) I choose a paper, click the download button and the paper is opened on my PC. Once I hit the save to Zotero icon on the top of the web-browser page/screen, the initial entry into the 5.0 stand alone Zotero library is a PDF file ONLY (when I know before I'd have had the full paper downloaded).
I then have to go into 5.0 Zotero, right-click the paper I just downloaded and choose 'Retrieve Metadata for PDF' MANUALLY and then I get the full paper downloaded, with all the tags section filled in, dates, authors etc etc, that don't come across with just a PDF.
And BOTH Firefox and Chrome perform the same and BOTH require a 2 stage d/l process for papers downloaded from EITHER browser, as I have said. Even Google Scholar papers work the same.
IF I choose the download tag at the top of the document page instead of the webbrowser button, I get a small screen with a 2 option choice of open(with Adobe, so as a PDF) or save(to my download file on my disc - so no Zotero reference). There used to be a 3rd option of Save To Zotero - which had disappeared from this box on the upgrade from 4 to 5 version.
NOW my original question was - is this how 5.0 is SUPPOSED to work, now?
OR is my version corrupted? I didn't install 5.0 voluntarily I knew it was coming, but waited until I was told to download by the 'Zotero update 'BOT'', (for want of a better phrase).
I am reluctant to dicker around reinstalling anything, as I have thousands of papers referenced and I don't know what I'd do if I lost all my research!!!
So my questions are:-
1. is what I am telling you above (the 2 part download) the norm for 5.0 Zotero?
2. is the reason this 2 stage d/l happens because I have an ad-blocker installed? (This happens on both Chrome (where the connector DID download) and Firefox (where adobe has got involved (in error, but I can't seem to change it))
3. will the only way to correct these errors be to reinstall Zotero 5.0?
4. if I reinstall Zotero 5.0, will this affect my library of papers saved IN ANY WAY? I can't run the risk of having anything deleted, and a fresh, new EMPTY version of Zotero installed.
5. or do I have to get used to a 2 stage d/l of papers from now on?
Oh and apologies for the time gap, but I've had flu and have only just uncrossed my eyes. Hope this helps you understand what's going on, my confusion and wariness in installing a fresh copy willy-nilly, as it were. Any advice will be welcome....
What isn't working right is that
a) You are misremembering one aspect of using Zotero and
b) using Zotero suboptimally.
What is incorrect is this part: With few exceptions, this has never been the case, including with Zotero 4 (and where it worked previously, such as on JSTOR, it should still work). It definitely has never worked for PDFs from Sciencedirect. That's not technically possible.
Where you're using Zotero suboptimally is here: Don't click the download button. You want to click the Save to Zotero button on the page that has the download button, i.e. for Sciencedirect that'd be here (as I say above):
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001879114000190
Could you please directly reply to this last bit if that's not clear? I feel like I'm struggling to get this across.
When I click it, it saves the paper as a PDF into my zotero directory. This is the point when I'd have expected the metadata to have been downloaded as well - as per version 4.
BUT to get the metadata I have to manually click onto my stand alone zotero, click the newly downloaded PDF paper, right click on the entry. This calls up a small menu of options one of which is 'retrieve metadata for PDF' and it's only when I click this option does zotero download the metadata.
I can send screen shots of this. Can I upload here? Do you have an email address I can send to?
BTW nice choice of demo paper! Gave me a chuckle...
And yes, upload a screenshot to any free image hosting site (imgur, Dropbox) and link to it from here.
Give me an email address?
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/e0628dqn9a429cz/AACIYYS0H-MyjRPH7NKg3n3Ga?dl=0
What you should be doing is to press the save to Zotero icon _before_ you open the PDF as shown here:
https://imgur.com/a/EaUsF
It saves even MORE time on the d/l! Well it does on Firefox, but Chrome a little clunky.
My apologies for causing confusion. I was shown the way I having been trying to explain and have used it that way ever since. Up until 5.0 Zotero has let me do it.
You've obviously tightened it up?
Thanks for sorting me out
Avis :)