Thanks for the explanation. I have a Galaxy Tab 6 on Wi-Fi, so it will take a while, especially as I take the tab out. It also sort of goes dormant when you close the case. I will have to figure out how to not overload the Zotero.
"Just as for iOS and the web library, the Android app will not work with linked files. There's no reasonable way to make that work."
@adamsmith Would it be reasonable on Android to follow the pattern of Zotero for Windows/Mac/Linux where you just specify a directory where all linked files are stored, then it's up to you as the user to populate that directory with linked files? Android lets you grant access to a directory like this and then users could use Syncthing/Dropbox/etc to ensure that folder stays up to date, which I do on all 3 desktop versions of Zotero.
I know this wouldn't work with Web and would be difficult to impossible on iOS, but other Android apps like KOReader follow this exact directory method.
@ryanwwest Android is reasonably achievable, expect to be able to handle "storage" this way, then there will be more free sync software available, not limited to zoterosync and WebDav. very worth looking forward.
But there is a problem, Android system album software will recognize the the picture inside document note as a photo display in the album, thousands of documents will make the album very messy, at least on Xiaomi device. Creating .nomedia solves this problem
Is it possible for a handwritten note to be retained as a single, individual annotation? Sometimes when I rewrite a note and I have to undo/erase illegible letters, the rest of the sentence is split into a new object/annotation.
Additionally, I have found that parts of a word I've written often go missing too. For example, I've handwritten a note and I can manage to scribe an entire sentence down without a problem - but when I deselect the pen tool, words are suddenly missing some letters (or lines).
Eg. "Pronunciation", as a handwritten word will be fine for one moment - then when I deselect the tool, it's suddenly missing lines, ultimately leaving it looking like "pronun at "
Coming a bit late into this threat... the beta program in Play Store seems to be full. Any chance of introducing more seats? How about the first release, when is it expected? Really keen on testing this app as I have two ongoing research projects that would benefit hugely...
I am seeing something similar to what @HiLite describes. I can draw very fluently in other apps on my tablet, but Zotero is quite slow to pick up the lines and keep them together. This is on a Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 with S Pen.
So far I have enjoyed the Zetero Beta for Android. However, is there anyway we could fix the some highlighliting issues in the beta. In the current desktop or even the web versions I can contral what I highlight. IN the beta, I have to highligh mutiple lines and sometimes a few extra words to hightligh waht I want. Also I cannot go from the bottom of one page to the next. This seems to casue a problem in the note. Particularly when you go from one page to another and now you have two sets of notes that belong to the same sentence. If this is hard to understand please let me know.
Thanks very much for opening the beta program up further @dstillman. I've been using Zotero on Android for a week now and it seems pretty solid.
I have had issues with Zotero sync. The first is that changes don't sync e.g. if I change a book section title from 'Introduction' to 'Introduction - 'More details' the title remains unchanged on Android. Further, I have noticed that new additions don't sync perfectly all the time. I have to drag the list down many times to get the new additons to sync across to Android even though I can see these new additions via browser
One last minor item; when using the pen group on Android I've been unable to resize the square
Thanks again, Dan, I very much value the work you are doing
Further to the sync issue reported above, I have 189 items in my library on Windows, and in the Zotero cloud. I only have 187 items in my library on my Android device I've tried syncing repeatedly but the discrepency remains. Is there is a way to reset the index on Android?
More on sync issues described above. Signing out of my Zotero account on Android and resigning in seems to reset the sync index. My libraries are now aligned.
Interestingly, I downloaded a marked up PDF to Android but later, on Windows added to the markups. I deleted the PDF from Android (long tap on the PDF icon > Delete) and redownloaded it. The newly downloaded document did NOT have to latest markups. When I followed this procedure after signing out and back in again to my Zotero account the newly downloaded document did have the latest markups.
User experience of Zotero Beta (vs. 20 March) on a Boox Max 3, 13.3inch device, running Android 9.
Handwritten comments cause page refreshs after each single stroke when in "Regal" refresh mode - but they do not happen in other modes, fortunately.
For my taste, there is simply too much lag when writing on a pdf file. A short word becomes visible only once I have finished writing it (in normal speed, not particularly fast). Is this delay down to my device or do other people have a similar experience?
I am not sure I'd be able to work that way - I find it distracting. Are there ways to reduce the lag? A good solution proposed already by others would be to enable the use of the native Boox Neoreader which has been optimized in this respect and works very well.
In any case, it's wonderful to see Zotero going Android! Thank you.
@slow500 I understand from previous comments here that this is how the Boox works for all apps except their own NeoReader and OneNote (I have a Boox myself and very keen to get it to work, but I'm not in the Zotero beta yet).
I believe there are three possible avenues to fix it. 1. Allow integration with third party pdf editors in general or specifically for NeoReader. 2. Boox adapts the OS to cater for Zotero, like they've done for OneNote. 3. The Zotero team uses the SDK provided by Boox to work well on the Boox devices.
1 seems contrary to the strategy adopted by the Zotero team across the platforms. They're working very hard to make the internal pdf editor instead of having a pdf parser that goes through changes made outside. The Boox is such strong use case though so it might be possible. The probability of 2 is unknown to me, I have no idea if Boox does this for any or many apps, if they do it based on request or app popularity or for other reasons.
3 would put additional burden on the Zotero team when they're trying to get 1.0 out of beta. But again, Zotero on the Boox is really a very very strong use case so it might be a possibility!
We should probably fundraise to buy a Boox for each of the developers so they see how good it could be!
I know nothing about implementation. However, I understand that ZotFile - an external Zotero plugin - is capable to extract highlighting and annotations from pdfs, and then feed them into Zotero - irrespective of the pdf programme used. Would that not mean that Option 1 should be possible to implement within Zotero itself? (This may just be wishful thinking or a misunderstanding on my part...)
As for Option 2, people seem to play around with the optimization settings for OneNote to get good results. I'll try to modify those settings for Zotero Beta if possible. May that could help already.
@slow500 It should absolutely be possible for the team to build Option 1, and it's possibly simpler to build and maintain than their own pdf reader/editor. But various reasons, the team has decided that they do want to build and maintain their own pdf reader (based on other open source projects), it probably simplifies a lot of other things across various platforms - including the web.
So, as they are probably not going to suddenly give up on their own editor, the question is whether they want to, in addition, take on building and maintaining the capability to use third party pdf readers (also across platforms).
As someone who generally prefers not using the Zotero storage for my files and paying for storage just to support the Zotero developers (although I see my subscription had lapsed a while ago, rectified now), I'd love for that to happen. But as I mentioned, I'm guessing that the team is not thinking to divert resources to that - at least not now. Maybe even, in a small part, because it reduces the incentive for people to subscribe to storage and fund the general Zotero development, but that's just speculation.
I don't really have any problems with OneNote, it works well without me having played with the optimization settings (and I don't use NeoReader at all). But maybe there are optimizations possible for Zotero already - please let us know if you find better settings!
Hello author, Zotero for Android is a great software, and I believe it will bring a lot of convenience to my work. However, I have a suggestion and I’m not sure if it’s appropriate, which is whether it would be possible to make the software runnable on devices without the Google Play framework in future official versions. This is because, to my knowledge, many devices in China are unable to install the Google Play framework. Thank you.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to reduce the stroke-delay in Zotero Beta by playing around with the optimisation settings provided in the Boox software.
By the way, may I ask how you use OneNote to scribble on pdf files in your Zotero library on your Boox device? I tried it but cannot find a way at all to make it work easily - lots of inconvenient extra steps to open/close a pdf.
The writing experience in OneNote is indeed very satisying!
Sorry, I'm not actually using OneNote with Zotero - I don't even have Zotero on my Boox (Zotero team, please open up more slots! :) ), I just use OneNote as OneNote, especially making notes during meetings and trainings. I understand how what I wrote could have been misunderstood.
I have a question about Android's pdf engine. It says it uses PSPDFKIT, does it mean if PSPDFKIT doesn't support a feature (ie. s pen latency improvement and eraser action), then Zotero Android will never have that feature? I used PDF Viewer Pro (an android app made by PSPDFKIT) few years ago and submitted these feature requests but haven't seen any fix so far, though I was told they noticed the problem. thanks. @dstillman
Currently not able to search the contents of a PDF file while in PDF viewer, i.e. a simple text search, as there is no such functionality available. Other than this, thanks for the great work!
Thank you for this amazing app. I am testing it ATM and what I found slightly annoying is that the screen automatically dims when reading a pdf. It does not do so with other apps like kindle or Adobe pdf reader. Is there a way to fix this in some settings?
I have been using Zotero from version 1 with paid storage, having migrated from EN and M.... Zotero is the best reference manager. Android support has been the only thing lacking. Please enroll me in the beta program.
Upgrade Storage
I will have to figure out how to not overload the Zotero.
@adamsmith Would it be reasonable on Android to follow the pattern of Zotero for Windows/Mac/Linux where you just specify a directory where all linked files are stored, then it's up to you as the user to populate that directory with linked files? Android lets you grant access to a directory like this and then users could use Syncthing/Dropbox/etc to ensure that folder stays up to date, which I do on all 3 desktop versions of Zotero.
I know this wouldn't work with Web and would be difficult to impossible on iOS, but other Android apps like KOReader follow this exact directory method.
But there is a problem, Android system album software will recognize the the picture inside document note as a photo display in the album, thousands of documents will make the album very messy, at least on Xiaomi device. Creating .nomedia solves this problem
Is it possible for a handwritten note to be retained as a single, individual annotation? Sometimes when I rewrite a note and I have to undo/erase illegible letters, the rest of the sentence is split into a new object/annotation.
Additionally, I have found that parts of a word I've written often go missing too. For example, I've handwritten a note and I can manage to scribe an entire sentence down without a problem - but when I deselect the pen tool, words are suddenly missing some letters (or lines).
Eg. "Pronunciation", as a handwritten word will be fine for one moment - then when I deselect the tool, it's suddenly missing lines, ultimately leaving it looking like "pronun at "
Really keen on testing this app as I have two ongoing research projects that would benefit hugely...
So far I have enjoyed the Zetero Beta for Android. However, is there anyway we could fix the some highlighliting issues in the beta. In the current desktop or even the web versions I can contral what I highlight. IN the beta, I have to highligh mutiple lines and sometimes a few extra words to hightligh waht I want. Also I cannot go from the bottom of one page to the next. This seems to casue a problem in the note. Particularly when you go from one page to another and now you have two sets of notes that belong to the same sentence. If this is hard to understand please let me know.
I have had issues with Zotero sync. The first is that changes don't sync e.g. if I change a book section title from 'Introduction' to 'Introduction - 'More details' the title remains unchanged on Android. Further, I have noticed that new additions don't sync perfectly all the time. I have to drag the list down many times to get the new additons to sync across to Android even though I can see these new additions via browser
One last minor item; when using the pen group on Android I've been unable to resize the square
Thanks again, Dan, I very much value the work you are doing
Also hope to see barcode scanning implemented eventually !
Interestingly, I downloaded a marked up PDF to Android but later, on Windows added to the markups. I deleted the PDF from Android (long tap on the PDF icon > Delete) and redownloaded it. The newly downloaded document did NOT have to latest markups. When I followed this procedure after signing out and back in again to my Zotero account the newly downloaded document did have the latest markups.
Handwritten comments cause page refreshs after each single stroke when in "Regal" refresh mode - but they do not happen in other modes, fortunately.
For my taste, there is simply too much lag when writing on a pdf file. A short word becomes visible only once I have finished writing it (in normal speed, not particularly fast). Is this delay down to my device or do other people have a similar experience?
I am not sure I'd be able to work that way - I find it distracting. Are there ways to reduce the lag? A good solution proposed already by others would be to enable the use of the native Boox Neoreader which has been optimized in this respect and works very well.
In any case, it's wonderful to see Zotero going Android! Thank you.
I believe there are three possible avenues to fix it.
1. Allow integration with third party pdf editors in general or specifically for NeoReader.
2. Boox adapts the OS to cater for Zotero, like they've done for OneNote.
3. The Zotero team uses the SDK provided by Boox to work well on the Boox devices.
1 seems contrary to the strategy adopted by the Zotero team across the platforms. They're working very hard to make the internal pdf editor instead of having a pdf parser that goes through changes made outside. The Boox is such strong use case though so it might be possible. The probability of 2 is unknown to me, I have no idea if Boox does this for any or many apps, if they do it based on request or app popularity or for other reasons.
3 would put additional burden on the Zotero team when they're trying to get 1.0 out of beta. But again, Zotero on the Boox is really a very very strong use case so it might be a possibility!
We should probably fundraise to buy a Boox for each of the developers so they see how good it could be!
I know nothing about implementation. However, I understand that ZotFile - an external Zotero plugin - is capable to extract highlighting and annotations from pdfs, and then feed them into Zotero - irrespective of the pdf programme used. Would that not mean that Option 1 should be possible to implement within Zotero itself? (This may just be wishful thinking or a misunderstanding on my part...)
As for Option 2, people seem to play around with the optimization settings for OneNote to get good results. I'll try to modify those settings for Zotero Beta if possible. May that could help already.
It should absolutely be possible for the team to build Option 1, and it's possibly simpler to build and maintain than their own pdf reader/editor. But various reasons, the team has decided that they do want to build and maintain their own pdf reader (based on other open source projects), it probably simplifies a lot of other things across various platforms - including the web.
So, as they are probably not going to suddenly give up on their own editor, the question is whether they want to, in addition, take on building and maintaining the capability to use third party pdf readers (also across platforms).
As someone who generally prefers not using the Zotero storage for my files and paying for storage just to support the Zotero developers (although I see my subscription had lapsed a while ago, rectified now), I'd love for that to happen. But as I mentioned, I'm guessing that the team is not thinking to divert resources to that - at least not now. Maybe even, in a small part, because it reduces the incentive for people to subscribe to storage and fund the general Zotero development, but that's just speculation.
I don't really have any problems with OneNote, it works well without me having played with the optimization settings (and I don't use NeoReader at all). But maybe there are optimizations possible for Zotero already - please let us know if you find better settings!
However, I have a suggestion and I’m not sure if it’s appropriate, which is whether it would be possible to make the software runnable on devices without the Google Play framework in future official versions. This is because, to my knowledge, many devices in China are unable to install the Google Play framework.
Thank you.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to reduce the stroke-delay in Zotero Beta by playing around with the optimisation settings provided in the Boox software.
By the way, may I ask how you use OneNote to scribble on pdf files in your Zotero library on your Boox device? I tried it but cannot find a way at all to make it work easily - lots of inconvenient extra steps to open/close a pdf.
The writing experience in OneNote is indeed very satisying!
Sorry, I'm not actually using OneNote with Zotero - I don't even have Zotero on my Boox (Zotero team, please open up more slots! :) ), I just use OneNote as OneNote, especially making notes during meetings and trainings. I understand how what I wrote could have been misunderstood.