"Find Available PDFs" Not Working with VPN
I'm working on a systematic review, and as part of the process, I've uploaded a reference list to Zotero that I need full text PDFs for to then upload to a separate software (Covidence). However, when I use "Find Available PDFs" to try to populate the collection with PDFs, it's not able to find many of the PDFs that I know I have institutional access to (and can access fine in my browser). I'm using a full tunnel institutional VPN, so I'm not sure why Zotero isn't recognizing so many of the PDFs. Any troubleshooting help you have would be greatly appreciated -- I've been through some of the older forums about this but still can't get it to work.
VPN: Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client v. 4.8.02045
Zotero: 5.0.90
VPN: Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client v. 4.8.02045
Zotero: 5.0.90
It's possible that Springer is doing something weird where it sends a PDF separately from the containing webpage. I don't have a VPN with access to Springer, so that's not something I'm able to test, but one way or another, your Zotero is getting a webpage at that URL rather than a PDF.
I'm not sure why you would be getting any sort of webpage there.
Incidentally in that example, after it downloaded the PDF the first time it THEN asked me to authenticate, and then downloaded it again. But I just disconnected and reconnected my VPN and tried again, and it no longer asks me to authenticate.
If it is a problem with Springer in particular, is there any way around it? Or do I just need to re-find those citations and download them with the browser plug-in?
And a Debug ID for one of the Wiley articles is here: D496401982
Re: the redirects in your browser, that might be the Zotero Connector's web proxy redirection support doing that after the PDF download. If you always use your VPN to access gated resources, you can just disable the redirection feature. With a VPN, I wouldn't think you'd ever need to connect via a web-based proxy.