Google Drive Linked Files All Gone Although Zotero and Zotfile Have the Right Address

dandylion77
edited 28 days ago
I get the dreaded error (possibly after a change in Google Drive mechanics)

"The file could not be found at the specified location, but a file with the same name was found within your Linked Attachment Base Directory:

Old Location: /Volumes/GoogleDrive/My Drive/PAPERS/AUTH/paper.pdf

New Location: /Users/dandylion77/Library/CloudStorage/GoogleDrive-dandylion77/My Drive/PAPERS/AUTH/paper.pdf"

With all my library even after setting my LABD Base Directory and Zotfile custom location to the new location /Users/dandylion77/Library/CloudStorage/GoogleDrive-dandylion77/My Drive/PAPERS/AUTH/

So I have no idea what to do to relink all my library and get rid of the error once and for all. Help please?

edit: ok so I managed to batch relink using Zutilo following the directions at this very helpful post https://darencard.net/blog/2019-09-19-zotero-file-relink/
but still no idea how to avoid the same problem in the future. Maybe there is no other way around once Google Drive location changes like this
  • adamsmith
    Setting your Base directory should take care of this, but you want to be as consistent as possible about this, i.e. set it to the actual same base folder -- so always to PAPERS or always to AUTH etc.

    I don't know exactly how Zotero relinks, but think going up and down in the hierarchy when setting the base (so e.g. setting it to PAPERS on one machine/time and AUTH on another) will get you the above message because the file is no longer at the specified path relative to to the link (in one case it's at ./AUTH/paper.pdf, in the other at ./paper.pdf)
  • dstillman
    @dandylion77, I think you're confusing this with the file-not-found message — I'm not sure why this would be a "dreaded" message. It's not a common message that people receive, and it's specifically saying that Zotero found your files, just at a different relative path, and offering to relink the files automatically. There was no need to manually change the paths using Zutilo — the whole point of this is that Zotero can correct it.

    But yes, this wouldn't happen if the base directory was configured properly on each computer from the beginning.
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