"Automatically rename [...]" does indeed rename but doesn’t show it (beta)

When added through the Safari Zotero Connector in beta, PDFs are renamed but the name of the PDF isn’t updated in Zotero’s interface (e.g. I still see "Full Text PDF" as the PDF file). Browsing the folder where the file is located confirms that the PDF  has indeed been renamed. Closing/reopening Zotero or syncing had no effect.
  • edited August 14, 2021
    That's the attachment title. The name is set by each individual translator and isn't supposed to be the filename. The filename is based on the parent metadata, which you already have in the parent row, so there's no point in just showing the filename there. You can see the filename in the right-hand pane after clicking on the attachment.
  • However, right-clicking on the file, then "Rename file from parent metadata" also modifies the name (in Zotero’s interface). Isn’t the behavior inconsistent with the automatic renaming? Not really a big problem since the file is actually renamed (I wasn’t aware that the attachment title differed from the filename), but still would be nice to have the attachment title renamed automatically too in the interface.
  • edited August 14, 2021
    Again, the attachment title is set explicitly by the translator based on the what it knows about the file being saved — there's nothing to "rename". The file is "renamed" because otherwise it's often a random string of characters sent by the web server.

    When you use the manual rename option, there's no translator involved to give the attachment a more descriptive name. You're right that changing the attachment title is a bit inconsistent, but if anything we'd change it to not rename the title in that case, or only rename it if the attachment title already matched the filename exactly. (I actually thought we did the latter, but apparently not.)
  • Reading your first paragraph I’m not sure I understand ; seems to be contradictory with the presence of an option to "rename files according to metadata".

    Anyway, doesn’t really matter. It’s a small detail and I understand the distinction between attachment title & filename.

    Thanks for the answer!
  • That option applies to files you add manually that already exist on disk and have filenames. Files saved from the Connector are always named after the parent metadata because there’s no real alternative — they would often just be gibberish.
  • Ohhh got it!

    Thanks for the explanation.
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