Upgrade StorageWhere data files are stored
Hello,
My team at work recently started using Zotero and have transferred all of our articles + citations over to Zotero. Previously we have stored all article PDFs on our local office server. When transferring to Zotero, we uploaded attachments from our local server. I just wanted to confirm that once files are uploaded to the Zotero server, they are stored entirely on the server and don't depend on the file being in the place it was originally uploaded from.
The reason I ask is, file attachments seem to open fine from Zotero online version, but when I try to open any attachment from Zotero Standalone on one particular computer, I get the error "The attached file could not be found. It may have been moved or deleted outside Zotero." And when I click "Locate" it sends me to what looks like a local file directory address: C:\Users\intern\AppData\Roaming\Zotero\Zotero\Profiles\qjipczyr.default\zotero\storage
Why might I be getting this error message from one computer (but not others), and to what extent does Zotero storage rely on any non-cloud storage? Thanks for helping increase my understanding!
My team at work recently started using Zotero and have transferred all of our articles + citations over to Zotero. Previously we have stored all article PDFs on our local office server. When transferring to Zotero, we uploaded attachments from our local server. I just wanted to confirm that once files are uploaded to the Zotero server, they are stored entirely on the server and don't depend on the file being in the place it was originally uploaded from.
The reason I ask is, file attachments seem to open fine from Zotero online version, but when I try to open any attachment from Zotero Standalone on one particular computer, I get the error "The attached file could not be found. It may have been moved or deleted outside Zotero." And when I click "Locate" it sends me to what looks like a local file directory address: C:\Users\intern\AppData\Roaming\Zotero\Zotero\Profiles\qjipczyr.default\zotero\storage
Why might I be getting this error message from one computer (but not others), and to what extent does Zotero storage rely on any non-cloud storage? Thanks for helping increase my understanding!
When I click on the attachment online, the web address is something like "https://files.zotero.net/691788205/Mundorf -.pdf" . I am having trouble understanding how all this works if file storage is truly local. What is the source that Zotero "syncs" or pulls files from? I just want to make sure it's not the original place that the file was uploaded from.
a) that files sync across computers and are
b) _also_ available, as you found, via the online interface
So if you have two computers (A and B) synced to Zotero, the files are stored in three locations: on computer A, on computer B, and on the Zotero server. When using the Zotero software on computer A, Zotero will open the file from the local storage on computer A; on computer B, from computer B's local storage, etc.
The files are stored in the storage folder in Zotero's data directory
https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data
i.e. in the case of the machine referenced above
C:\Users\intern\AppData\Roaming\Zotero\Zotero\Profiles\qjipczyr.default\zotero\storage
Edit: if this helps to understand the logic, this is exactly how a synced Dropbox folder works.