How to retrieve the full filepath for a broken attachment?

Gurdas_Sandhu · April 7, 2018

My attachments use the "Attach Link to File..." method. I have a few attachments where the file path is broken. How can I get the FULL file path for these broken cases?

Not required here, but I was able to locate the broken attachments using a handy storage scanner that is discussed here:
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/66487/how-to-find-unlinked-files

adamsmith · April 7, 2018

Zutilo can show you where Zotero is looking for the file -- there's no way to actually find the file though, that I'm aware of, beyond just searching your harddisk

Gurdas_Sandhu · April 7, 2018

Thanks. I turned on Zutilo's "copy attachment path" option and that provided the full path. Shouldn't this be available natively in Zotero?

I needed the full path because the existence of broken attachments was mystifying. I knew where the files were and they've always been in the same location. Seeing the full path solved the mystery. I use the base path feature and for some files the attachment process was done when my Windows username was temporarily different than what it has always been and it is part of the path as in "C:\Users\username\Documents\...."

compunk · April 7, 2018

When I have something like that, I use search tool.
In this case my favorite tool is Everything (https://www.voidtools.com/en-au/)
Since you already know the file name, it isn't difficult to locate it.
Check it, it may be helpful.

Gurdas_Sandhu · April 7, 2018

Actually, when I think of it again, that's not how base path should have worked. So, this could possibly be a bug in Zotero Firefox days because I have switched between base directory system and absolute path at one point. I say this because my base directory is always set to the "C:\Users\username\Documents\" level, so the username part of the path should not affect file location.

Gurdas_Sandhu · April 7, 2018

@compunk Thanks, that's handy to know. Not useful for this case since I know where my files are. All the broken links are because the username part somehow did not update for those attachments (and this affects about 3% of my attachments).