Upgrade Storagecannot retrieve pdf metadata
After right-click on a PDF file, in stand-alone zotero's middle pane,
there is no menu option on the right-click menu,
to "retrieve pdf metadata".
There is no other way to get the metadata from a PDF file in Zotero.
There seems to be no discussion or awareness of this in the support pages or forums.
This is on Windows-10 systems (I've tried on three of them, all up-to-date with version 1809).
there is no menu option on the right-click menu,
to "retrieve pdf metadata".
There is no other way to get the metadata from a PDF file in Zotero.
There seems to be no discussion or awareness of this in the support pages or forums.
This is on Windows-10 systems (I've tried on three of them, all up-to-date with version 1809).
Easiest for diagnosing what's wrong in your case would be for you to take a screenshot of the right-click menu (use the Windows "Snipping tool" with a delay to capture that), post it to a free image hosting site (imgur.com, dropbox.com, etc.) and link to it here.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/79t0ewg6l7a237v/zotero-rightclick-menu-pdf-missing-retrieve-metadata.PNG?dl=0
The option "create bibliography" fails, saying "contains no references"
To "generate report" does make an empty report.
To "rename file from parent metadata" does change the pdf name, but only to parent name of course; no metadata retrieved.
To "reindex item" seems to work internally, whatever it's for, but does nothing visible.
In past versions maybe this worked in zotero on these windows systems, but didn't notice as wasn't using it much on windows. So not sure when (if) this stopped working, or disappeared from the menu.
HTH.
There, this works in zotero (version 4.0.29.10)!
After upgrading to windows-10 release 1803, then the "retrieve metadata" entry disappeared from the right-click menu.
Looks like the windows update breaks something, in zotero versions 4 and 5.
I've no idea what, but it's something the zotero development team may want to look out for, assuming Microsoft don't fix the issue in a future update...
I'm a bit surprised how you got the PDF into Zotero in this form though -- that should not appear commonly.
Nor sure either how it happened. Just captured some papers today from Google scholar, and from research gate like this one, and seems that an automatic retrieval step was missed. Perhaps a server was unavailable momentarily. Anyway this is the source:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323502497_Science_of_science
But the other ways you suggest are effective.
For anyone following this, the doi using the magic wand icon in the zotero middle pane -- that works a treat.
Not quite working FYI, probably due to browser compatibilities.
But nearly...
So what works (in chrome on windows-10, at researchgate), is to right-click on Download blue button, and open in other tab. that prompts to download the PDF.
Canceling that leaves the new tab open with the url in the top.
Clicking on that and hitting "return" to revisit that url now loads the PDF as a page.
Then can go to zotero using the extension button as you say.
A bit roundabout, but ok. Probably some broswer settings may be involved.
Other way to do this is to right-click on the page, and in zotero sub-menu, select the DOI option. That works pretty well.
In both cases however (and this probably only me) the PDF is downloaded as new top-level item into Zotero stand-alone app.
But then getting it to retrieve metadata fixes it properly.
Why is that last step needed for me? As to an earlier question, this is probably connected with the recent windows upgrade (to 1803).
This is probably too vague to help developers, but it's a clue.