Problem changing directory location

CC007
edited February 27, 2018
Context: I have just upgraded by laptop and have therefore moved my directory onto an external drive for transfer. I have also installed the new Zotero software (I was previously on Standalone).

Initially I pointed Zotero to my external drive to check that the install had worked (I was able to set this up fine on the new laptop). I then transferred the Zotero database onto the hard drive, and changed the directory location.

However, every time I reopen Zotero, I get a pop-up to say that it can't find the directory (i.e. it is defaulting to the previous directory location). Have tried to change multiple times and have quit Zotero each time after changing as required. I have also rebooted the laptop just in case ...

Any ideas?
  • CC007
    My IT support have uninstalled and reinstalled the software but somehow Zotero is still remembering the previous location and constantly defaulting. The technician can only suggest that the machine is reimaged to remove whatever issue is causing this.

    Obviously this may enable me to choose a new directory location but is going to lose me another day+ of working time. There is also no guarantee that I will be able to change locations in the future.

    I'm sure there must be a solution to this that doesn't involve reimaging ....?

    Please help!
  • CC007
    I also seem to have some other problems following the new installation. e.g. capturing references from chrome is taking a very long time and I have also had to disable the proxy settings.

    I imagine that these issues may be related to the way in which the university's network interacts with Zotero. Can you advise on how to overcome this?

    After the computer is reimaged tomorrow (assuming you don't have an alternative solution), will problems be solved by placing all zotero installation on the local drive?? (I have tried to uninstall and then reinstall onto the local drive, but am still having problems - it looks like it has not uninstalled completely and is remembering the old location. Hence needing to reimage the machine).
  • adamsmith
    Yeah, don't reimage the machine, there's certainly no need for this (it's a bit of a bizarre idea to do this for something that's obviously a single software preference -- not sure what your IT folks were thinking).

    Let's take this one-by-one. Could you describe _exactly_ what the current setting for data directory location are and how you're changing them?
  • CC007
    Current setting is D:\ (external USB drive).
    I was able to select this when the new zotero was first installed on new machine (in case it's useful, unfortunately IT had installed the program files on a network drive at this point)
    When I opened zotero again (with the USB in) it worked fine with the above location. However, I wanted to change to a location on the C drive C:\LocalData\CM582\ZOTERO DATABASE (where I had copied my zotero database).
    Both times, I selected the location by going to Edit / Preferences / Advanced / Files and Folders / custom and browsing for the folder.
  • CC007
    IT were suggesting reimaging because they thought it might be a problem with having zotero on university network. They uninstalled and reinstalled on the C:drive. However, zotero was still remembering the location and we could not get it to forget it.

    Therefore they suggested the reimage as the only possible solution - as I had initially been able to select a directory location when first installed.
  • CC007
    Having been back into the university this morning, the problem appears to have resolved itself. I was able to select a new directory location.

  • dstillman
    However, every time I reopen Zotero, I get a pop-up to say that it can't find the directory (i.e. it is defaulting to the previous directory location).
    What's the exact message you're getting, and what are you doing when you get it? The dialog should let you choose the directory, so I'm not sure why you say you're going into the preferences to change it.

    Really the easiest option is just to move the data directory to the default location, which is "Zotero" in your home directory. Zotero would then automatically use that directory. But if you don't want to store it there, you should certainly be able to choose another directory.
  • CC007
    It appears to be solved for now.

    But the issue was that it was defaulting to a location on a USB drive and I could not change the location either by going via the dialog box or through preferences, and it would not change back to the zotero default either even after reinstall - see above.

    There was obviously something funny going on between the uni and zotero systems.
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