Moving records detaches PDFs

drhardy
When I move a folder from one group library to another, or just try copying records from a folder in one group library to a folder in another group library, many of the PDFs are not longer able to open. I get this pop-up error:

"The attached file could not be found.

It may have been moved or deleted outside of Zotero, or, if the file was added on another computer, it may not yet have been synced to zotero.org."
  • dstillman
    Are the files accessible in the source library? Do you see a filled (rather than empty) blue circle in the Attachments column in the middle pane before the drag?

    There's a known issue where, if you're using on-demand file sync mode and don't have a file locally, it won't be copied if you copy the item to another group. We should have a fix for that along with various planned improvements for download-on-demand mode, but I'm not sure when that will happen, so for now you'd need to make sure the files have synced to that library before copying them elsewhere. (And if you've already copied the items/files once, you'll need to delete them and empty the trash before copying again.)
  • drhardy
    They all have the a filled blue circle before copying. Some do some don't when copied to new location. The ones with filled blue circle work, while those with empty circle get the error noted above.
  • drhardy
    Also, I have my Preference set to Automatic Sync.
  • dstillman
    If you're seeing this consistently, it would be great if you could create a test group and then provide a Debug ID for copying a collection to that group and then trying to open a PDF in the target library that's not available.
  • drhardy
    D1359916042

    I tried to copy a Collection to a new library. Then in the new copy, I went to the first record (which had a blue circle not filled it). I clicked it and got the error.

    I should also note that when going through one of my other collections today I noticed a lot of other records with this issue.

    I tried to open a file there, and got same error. Here is code for that D505102345.

    Here is a link to a powerpoint with a picture of an example.
    https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D644099_07382366_9950428

    I the Blasi 1991 record had a PDF that worked. The PDF is still presumably there since it is showing, but it won't open. I get that error.

  • dstillman
    I tried to copy a Collection to a new library. Then in the new copy, I went to the first record (which had a blue circle not filled it). I clicked it and got the error.
    I might be misreading it, but this doesn't look like you're copying to a new library. This appears to be a library that you created a couple weeks ago that already had hundreds of items, and the collection drag is only creating new collections, not new items.

    When you drag items to a library, Zotero stores the links between those items, and if you later drag a collection containing those items, the previously copied items will just be added to the new collection copies. For this problem, I'd need to see the creation of the items, ideally in a new test library that you create just for this purpose.
  • drhardy
    I'm picking up this discussion again. I spent several years creating a large library when I converted my file drawers to digital. It is a Group Library so I could have research assistants help build it. Unfortunately I didn't copy it to My Libraries. Now I'm noticing for a substantial number of records I can't access the PDF. In these cases, when I click to expand the record info in the main Zotero window it shows that I have a PDF attached. But the circle to the right is not solid. When I click I get an error that says:

    "The attached file could not be found.

    It may have been moved or deleted outside of Zotero, or, if the file was added on another computer, it may not yet have been synced to zotero.org."

    Any ideas what happened and how to fix it?
  • dstillman
    It's really just what it says in the error message. The files would always be available on the computer where they were created or where they previously existed unless they were deleted outside of Zotero — there's simply no way for them to be removed otherwise. If you don't have them on your current computer, see the Files Not Syncing steps.

    But if the PDFs were added on RAs' computers that you no longer have access to and weren't fully synced to the online library, you may simply need retrieve them again. In those cases, the Find Available PDF feature might help, particularly if you can run it from a campus or VPN connection where you have direct access to gated materials.
  • drhardy
    As an update, we fixed the problem using the above link about Files Not Syncing. The files were working in Zotero on my assistant's computer, but not online or on mine. We reset the sync history on his computer, resynced on his, then I opened mine and let it sync. It works now. Yeah!
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