Error - Rename File from Parent Metadata

FranciscoZepeda
Since today, when I use "Rename File from Parent Metadata" Zotero is changing the file name, but also adding automatically the word "Document" to the field "Title" under the PDF's Document Properties. The result is that when I open the file in Acrobat Reader, the file name that appears at the top is "Document".

This is very annoying because if I have several documents open at the same time, all of them appear with the name "Document" even if the name of the file is according to Parent Meta Data, you now, Author - Year - Title of the paper. It is horrible because know I need to lose time identifying what document is.

This is new, never happened before today, and I have been using Zotero for more than a year.

Does anyone know how to solve this? Thanks!

  • dstillman
    I'm not sure what you mean here. Zotero doesn't modify the PDF itself in any way. It just retrieves metadata for it, creates a parent item, and renames the file.
  • FranciscoZepeda
    I will try to explain better.

    Once I imported a PDF file, Zotero gives me the option of renaming the file from parent metadata. That action actually changes the file name. I have been doing that for a long time. And it didn't modify before any other characteristic of the file. If I open one of those files, it uses automatically Acrobat Reader, and at the top of the file appears the file name, so it is easy to identify them.

    However, since today morning, I used that function "rename from parent metadata," but now when I open the file in Acrobat Reader, now at the top of the file it appears "Document", not the file name, and it is not possible to distinguish quickly one file form the other just watching at the title of the document. First, I thought that Zotero was not renaming the file, so I checked the "File Properties" on Acrobat Reader and saw that the file name was correctly changed, but below there is another field that says "Title" and in that field is where the word "Document" appears. If the field "Title" is empty, Acrobat Reader displays the name of the file. But if the field "Title" says "Document" then Acrobat Reader displays "Document" when the paper is open.

    I tried several times. When I open a document that I uploaded to Zotero before, it works well. But if I rename that file from parent metadata, then what I see at the top of the paper, when Zotero opens the paper in Acrobat Reader, is the word "Document" instead of the file name. If then I check the file properties, the word "document" is added to the field "Title." And it cannot be changed outside, it stays there. So my problem is that I have five or six PDF documents simultaneously opened, all with different names, but at the top of each one, I saw "Document" instead of the filename.

    I hope someone can help with this issue.



  • dstillman
    edited October 25, 2020
    And it didn't modify before any other characteristic of the file
    And I'm telling you it still doesn't. You can check the size of the file before and after renaming it in Zotero, or you can use a file hash checker to check the file contents. They won't change. (The file modification time is updated to trigger a file sync in Zotero, but that's it.)

    What you're describing isn't something that has anything to do with Zotero.
  • FranciscoZepeda
    You are right, it has anything to do with Zotero. The database where I was downloading the files changed that field in the document properties. I found a way to edit it before uploading the files to Zotero. Thanks for your help!
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