Moving Zotero to new pc

Pracademic
edited November 28, 2022
I need to migrate my Zotero folder content to work with a different login but on my same machine, due to an admin change with my university. I have seen different suggestions on how best to do this via the Discussions but was wondering how best to do this considering:
- auto syncing (when logged into Zotero, when logged into my pc with my new login, I am able to see all of my Zotero library).
- local files (however, simply copying over my storage folder is not working for the files that I have locally copied and mapped to, as many have different file names than Zotero referenced file names).

I'm getting an error similar to that referenced in this post for the file syncing. https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/files_not_syncing

Any thoughts on how best to proceed? Also do I need to import my Zotero content if I already sync?

Any suggestions (or being pointed to an existing Discussion that covers this) would be helpful. Thanks in advance.
  • dstillman
    https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/transferring_a_library
  • Pracademic
    Thank you. I did the Option A but quite a few of my files are located in my storage folder and mapped to individually, having different names than what Zotero shows. That results in errors of "files not syncing".

    I see that there is a checkbox under General->File Handling about "Automatically rename attachment files using parent metadata" and a sub under that of "Rename linked files". If I click that now in the originating login location, will that update the names of the files in Zotero to those in storage or vice versa and allow for easier match-up?
  • dstillman
    edited November 28, 2022
    quite a few of my files are located in my storage folder and mapped to individually, having different names than what Zotero shows
    This doesn't make sense. The files in 'storage' are handled by Zotero — they wouldn't be "mapped to individually" or have different names from what Zotero knows, unless you did something very strange and created linked files within the 'storage' folder, which you absolutely shouldn't do.

    In any case, if you do mean that you're using linked files, those files wouldn't be synced by Zotero and you'd need to manage them yourself. You can convert linked files to stored files from the Tools → Manage Attachments menu on the computer where they exist if you want Zotero to manage and sync them.

    Note that you're at your file sync quota, so many files simply wouldn't have uploaded and wouldn't be available in the online library, as explained on Files Not Syncing. You'd have to upgrade your storage if you want to sync files that way.
  • Pracademic
    Unfortunately, I have put some files into my storage folder, not knowing that is something I shouldn't be doing. For example, if PDFs didn't download when I added them to my library, I would download them myself, save them to my storage folder, and then link to them via Zotero using Add Attachment->Attach Stored Copy of File.

    I could remove the files I have manually saved in that folder and put them elsewhere. Is there a way I can update the file path to link to those in a different location if I were to do that?

    As for the file sync quota, I didn't realize I was at capacity. I'll look into upgrading that next.
  • dstillman
    edited November 28, 2022
    "Attach Stored Copy of File" creates stored files, though, so those would have been copied into individual 'storage' subfolders managed by Zotero. The originals that you placed manually directly within 'storage' would then no longer be used at all — they'd just be orphaned files taking up space on your disk for no reason.

    The files directly within 'storage' would only be relevant if you actually created linked files rather than stored files. I explain above how you can convert those to stored files.
  • Pracademic
    Excellent. I'll go through that description above in more detail and respond with any remaining questions. Thanks so much for your responsiveness, dstillman. I appreciate your help.
  • Pracademic
    edited December 9, 2022
    Hello dstillman. I have tried a few things since I last wrote. I'm hoping you or another can help me in these next steps. Please see below for what I've done thus far:
    1. I logged into the new computer with my Zotero id and synced.
    2. I upgraded my storage so I have extra space as needed.

    After that, I tried to open one of my pdf files that I knew I had saved myself within the storage folder and linked to. But it didn't open. The error message said the correct file path--to a Zotero sub-folder.

    I'm wondering...
    - The file name in the folder location shown on the popup error message matches the name shown within Zotero (as a sub to the entry there). But it does not match the name of the pdf file within the folder....which would make sense why the pdf isn't opening when the system is searching for it.
    - I did notice that the file name is correct under my old storage sub-folder, which is different than the one created when I synced once logged in on the new machine.

    Thank you.
  • dstillman
    edited December 9, 2022
    Just upgrading your storage wouldn't do anything on its own. You would need to sync the computer where the files were added so that they could now be uploaded and become available on other computers.

    (Put another way, you're still using only 300 MB, even though you upgraded, because nothing new has been uploaded.)
  • Pracademic
    edited December 9, 2022
    Yes, I was wondering if it was because I had logged into the new Zotero location before I upgraded my storage, that might mean the files never properly synced to begin with.

    So, should I sync in the originating location then? How do I do that?

    Then what do I do in the new location after that?

    Or should I just paste over my storage files and folders from the old location? Kind of like what's Option B of this link you had provided last week (https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/transferring_a_library). I tested that approach for one folder and that seemed to work. Is there a reason I shouldn't do this? Would it ruin my syncing?
  • dstillman
    So, should I sync in the originating location then?
    Yes.
    How do I do that?
    By clicking the sync button.
  • Pracademic
    Ok, I figured out how to do that. When I returned to the new location, it automatically started syncing. When I tested out a few files, they did not open and I got the same error message as before. However, this time, there was no pdf in the file where it should have been. Should I have avoided syncing in the new location when I logged back into that, though I did not click the sync button there?
  • dstillman
    You've still barely uploaded any more files — only 5 MB.

    See Files Not Syncing for steps to debug this.
  • Pracademic
    I followed the steps above but never got the syncing process to work in a way that proved successful for opening PDFs. So, after doing some spot checks on a few library items, I pasted my Storage folder into the new destination and found that to be successful.

    I'm still uncertain if these files are considered to be linked. However, when I select all library entries and attempted to Manage Attachments, it is greyed out and unclickable. So I assume that all files are in their correct folders and linked to the proper entries. I just don't understand why following the syncing process didn't work.

    If you have ideas, please advise. However, I'm just glad things seem to be working now. Thank you.
  • dstillman
    You would have to follow the steps on the Files Not Syncing page, which you haven't done (or you'd be providing more information).
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