Can I restore annotations from notes?

nikhilweee
I know I can create a note from annotations by "right click" -> "add note from annotations". Is there a way to go the other way round?

If yes, this would be a great way to restore annotations in case PDFs are lost. Zotero already has a feature to "Find available PDF", and this feature would complete the loop.

The major reason I need a PDF is for annotations, and if this were possible, I wouldn't have to worry about syncing PDFs anymore because I could just restore annotations from Zotero notes.
  • ulahcherubim
    edited February 16, 2024
    Zotero stores annotations from PDF in its database. If you annotate from another PDF reader, simply importing annotations to Zotero from the PDF reader menu will secure your annotation data.
  • martynas_b
    The major reason I need a PDF is for annotations, and if this were possible, I wouldn't have to worry about syncing PDFs anymore because I could just restore annotations from Zotero notes.
    Why exactly are you worrying about syncing PDF files?
  • nikhilweee
    edited February 16, 2024
    @ridvanbinici you're right, zotero saves PDF annotations in its database. But if file sync is turned off, there is no easy way to use those annotations from another device.

    Consider the following use case: I add an arxiv preprint (along with the PDF) to my zotero library from computer A. I read the PDF on zotero, and save annotations. Now I switch to computer B, and start syncing. Zotero syncs all data associated with the preprint, except for the PDF file since I have file sync turned off. When I click on the PDF file, I do see annotations since they were synced but when I try to open the PDF, I get an error saying "File Not Found" which is correct since the PDF did not sync. So far so good. But now I have no easy way to use these annotations without a PDF.

    * One way is to add a PDF manually. Even if I were to do so, there is no way to associate annotations to this new PDF file.
    * If I wish to use the "Find Available PDF" option, I need to delete any existing PDFs associated with the item, which means my annotations are lost.

    @martynas_b I am worried about syncing PDFs because annotations are unusable on their own.

    EDIT: There is a related discussion that I found which elaborates on this situation a bit more: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/101445/quickly-download-missing-pdfs
  • nikhilweee
    I wonder if a quick solution would be to show the "Find Available PDF" button when there are linked PDFs but the actual files are missing from disk.
  • ulahcherubim
    Now I understand what you want.
    If your use case is for two computers, you have to use cloud storage (or Syncthing if you are concerned about privacy and can run both devices at the same time, since it requires connection on both ends, which is different from cloud storage) in combination with ZotFile/Attanger.
    I think your request for Find Available PDF or reverse process of the extract annotations would not be implemented by devs, since so little of users would need them.
    Do you have concerns about syncing PDFs via offered solutions? These are the easiest ways to resolve your problem.
  • nikhilweee
    I came up with a script to replace missing PDFs. Posting it here in case people find it helpful.

    https://gist.github.com/nikhilweee/fdf7b471a31c2f1c2b9527c51d734d86
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