Zotero 7 and Zotfile

Hello,
When I was using Zotero version 6, all the plugins were working perfectly, but yesterday, August 9th, I updated Zotero to version 7. It's very nice and functional, but all my plugins were disabled. I tried to reactivate them but it didn't work. So I removed them and when I reinstalled the Zotfile plugin (version zotfile-5.1.2-fx.xpi) I got a message that this plugin is incompatible with Zotero 7. Is anyone else experiencing this? Is there an alternative to Zotfile?
  • All plugins had to be re-written for Zotero v7. Some were not, including Zotfile. The Zotfile-like plugins for Zotero v7 are zotmoov and attanger. Both provide similar support for linked attachment file handling. Zotfile's enhanced file renaming is now provided by Zotero v7's enhanced capabilities. Neither plugin offers Zotfile's send-to-tablet feature.
    https://github.com/wileyyugioh/zotmoov
    https://github.com/MuiseDestiny/zotero-attanger
    https://www.zotero.org/support/file_renaming#customizing_the_filename_format
  • edited August 12, 2024
    Hi @tim820 , if neither Zotmoov nor Attanger offers a "send to tablet" feature, is there any other plugin or method currently in Zotero 7 for me to easily send a given PDF/file to a Dropbox folder that I can access on my iPad, and then click to easily "retrieve" with its annotations, once I finish reading it? Or this is just something that died with Zotfile not being supported in Z7?
    Edit: OK I've added the Zotmoov plugin, and see that I can select a file and "Move to Selected Directory", which is useful - but is there any way to "retrieve" that file document once I've finished reading it and it gets added back to the right location within my Zotero library, and adds a note of the annotations I made on the document? This was a wonderful feature of Zotfile, it's a pity it's not replicated here.
  • edited August 13, 2024
    @samanthaculp: You're aware that there's a Zotero iOS app? You're already syncing files, so you can just use that and get the benefits of native Zotero annotations.
  • edited August 13, 2024
    @samanthaculp Zotmoov's "Move to Selected Directory" is just the equivalent of Zotfile's right-click Rename&Move (which moves a PDF to Zotfile's Custom Location folder). Zotmoov's "Directory To Move Files to" (same as Custom Location folder) is also used when PDFs are downloaded by the Zotero web connector.

    Those PDF files were saved by Zotfile (before Zotero v7) as *linked* attachment files (which do not work with Groups, or the online web library, or the Zotero mobile apps) - Zotmoov annd Attanger do the same. That folder is typically a cloud-mirrored folder, like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Onedrive.
    https://www.zotero.org/support/attaching_files#linked_files

    So of course if your cloud folder is accessible on your mobile device, you can open a linked PDF file stored there into any *other* PDF reader on you mobile device, and annotate it (you just can't load a linked PDF into the Zotero mobile app). You would *not* see any annotations that have already been added within Zotero, as they are not embedded in PDFs (unless you exported them to the PDF). Then, back in Zotero on your computer, you would see the new annotations you added on you device (as 'locked' annotations), and you could import them into Zotero if you wish.

    The other way I can see of doing a manual version of Zotfiles' "Send To Tablet" for linked files - but which allows you to use the Zotero mobile app - would be to temporarily convert linked PDFs you want to work with on your mobile device to Zotero's standard *stored* files. You could have a collection named _Tablet_Items for example, to keep track of PDFs for use on your mobile device. You would keep in that collection any items whose PDFs you wished to work with in the Zotero mobile app (they would of course also remain in any other collections to which they belong). All items in that collection would be maintained as stored files (ie under Zotero\storage), using Zotero desktop's Tools\Manage Attachments\Convert Linked Files to Stored Files, for as long as you need to use them on your mobile device. You would have Zotero File syncing turned ON. So - as long as you are *under* your online file storage quota - Zotero would make those PDFs available in the online web library and also in the Zotero mobile app. When you finish working with a PDF, you would use zotmoov or attanger (right-click menu) to move it back to its linked file folder location. You would then remove the item from the _Tablet_Items collection.
  • Thanks @dstillman and @tim820 for comments. I've never used the Zotero iOS apps (for either iPhone or iPad) because it's always been buggy and crashes often. I had a good workflow with Zotfile which was to select a given PDF, "send to tablet" (a folder on my Dropbox), access and read via PDF Expert, then "get from tablet" back in Zotero when I was done, and it would import with all the Annotations as a new note, etc. I'll continue to work with Zotmoov to try to replicate this. Thanks all
  • edited August 13, 2024
    I've never used the Zotero iOS apps (for either iPhone or iPad) because it's always been buggy and crashes often
    That's…not a normal thing that people report. If you're having trouble with something, you should actually report it here so we can fix it. You've never posted here with any problems about the iOS app.

    I don't know the last time you tried the app, but I would strongly recommend you try it again.
  • @samanthaculp

    I use both the iOS and Android Zotero apps daily, and to be honest, never had any issues, especially with the iOS version since it has been officially released. It may be worth to give it a try again and see if the issues you had in the past are resolved. This way you will not have to deal with any potential alternative path to achieve what you are trying.
  • @tim820, I implemented zotmoov as you described but is there a way to pull documents into zotero, rather than just manually copying/pasting? Maybe it's really obvious and I just don't know, but I'd also been using 'get from tablet' for this function.
  • edited August 15, 2024
    @aramanijam it's not clear which of the two methods I outlined above you are using. So it's not exactly clear where you're hitting a problem.

    In the first method (2nd last para), your linked-file PDF attachment remains in its cloud folder all along, so it is still accessible there from Zotero desktop after use in an external PDF reader on your mobile device.

    In the second method (last para), converting a PDF from Zotero storage back to a linked PDF in Zotero desktop is described in that para. With zotmoov, you would use its right-click menu option below (similar to Zotfile's right-click Rename&Move). You would then use Zotero's right-click Remove Item From Collection to remove it from your _Tablet_Items folder (or whatever you called it), since you no longer need to keep track of it that way.
    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u5906489/jfqmxycr6odhq5wki98s.png
  • Hello everybody,
    I used to use Zotfile to create an attachment file in Onedrive. Now I cannot use it as zotfile not available anymore. From our recommendations, ZotMoov also seems a good option. But my problem is
    if I download Zootmoov will I need to rearrange all the files one by one or
    will it automatically bring the same directory?

    also when Zotfile will be available again?
  • edited August 16, 2024
    @nes34 the (Onedrive) locations of your *existing* linked PDF attachment files are already stored in the Zotero database. If you disabled Zotfile (under Zotero v6), they would still be located by Zotero when you ask it to open them. That does not rely on Zotfile - which will not be available again. So there is nothing with your existing linked PDF files to "rearrange".

    Under Zotero v7, you simply need a (new) plugin that will store *new* PDFs as linked files to that same folder. That plugin can be zotmoov or attanger, as mentioned above.

    See also:
    https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/470754/#Comment_470754
  • So, I used to use Zotfile with Zotero 6. Now, with Zotero 7, I am planning to use just the Zotero database.

    Do I need to re-link the files back to the original Zotero storage so that I can access them on iOS and the website? If so, how do I do that?
  • edited August 20, 2024
    @Fontanapink use Tools\Manage Attachments\Convert Linked Files to Stored Files. As long as you remain under your online storage quota and you have file syncing turned on, your attachment files will be synced to the web library, across computers, and to the mobile apps (and to any Groups you later add them to).
  • thanks @tim820 that is VERY clear. Do you know if I use a webDAV storage I will also be able to access the files in iOS?
  • Thank you very much for the explanation @tim820. I installed Zotmoov and it worked. Iliked!
  • Thank you Tim. I insalled zootmove and it link attachment. However, When I try to open the link in another computer it shows error.
    I tried create a new base directory and relink same attachments to this new directory it still shows errors. I think I mess up little bit. because I found many many dublicates in same file.
    btw, I use onedrive as a cloud service.
    How can I relink all my attachment in new base directory and delete the old one.
    i search online and some people mention zutilo as addon to help relink attachment but it does not work with zotero 7.
    any suggestion to solve the problem.
  • edited August 22, 2024
    @nes34 what does the error message say ?

  • i cannot reach my other computer rn but as I remember it says "cannot find the file, your file moved or .... something like that.
  • edited August 22, 2024
    Does it tell you the exact path to where it thinks that file should be ? That is often the clue to solving the problem (along with where that particular file actually is located on that computer). In any case you need that information.
  • It says the attachemnet file cannot be found. The attachment file maybe removed from zotero or moved another file or just deleted. the attachment file maybe linked to wrong file
  • edited August 23, 2024
    So it doesn't give you an exact path location where it can't find the linked PDF file ? In that case it's possible that you may have set a Linked Attachment Base Directory on one computer but not all computers. You presumably know where the linked PDF *actually* is on each computer.

    Did you have everything working correctly under Zotero 6 (with Zotfile) for the exact PDF file(s) that is not being found now ?

    If it was working under Zotero 6, there should never be a need to re-link any files as long as the actual locations of those linked files that worked with Zotero 6 is the same as their location now with Zotero 7. Those linked locations were stored in Zotero's database at the time those files were added. You could have removed Zotfile or Zotmoov, and Zotero would still find those files - that does not require any plugin to be present.

    If you have changed any of those linked file locations, it's possible that your problem is now more complicated.

    But the gist if the issue will be where Zotero *thinks* a linked file is (either its original explicit-path location stored in the Zotero database, or the LABD location set on that computer) and then - because it can't find that file - the location where that file is actually located on that computer.

    Take a single PDF that Zotero can't find and write those locations down for each computer. Including the LABD set on each computer (if any). Post them here if you can't figure out the solution.


  • Hello, I found this github repository in which I understand, according to the Chinese translation, that it would be the solution to zotfile in zotero7

    https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-file

    It seems to me that it is not mentioned here. Has anyone tried it, do you know how it goes? And, furthermore, how should it be installed? -I couldn't find it with the translator-

    the new zotero 7 is impressive. Thanks you
  • edited September 6, 2024
    @JuanAbasolo that respository is an old copy of an earlier version of the Attanger code. It was stored during a naming dispute regarding the use of the Zotero name, when the developer's github disappeared. There is nothing there to install. The developer's site eventually re-appeared with the new Attanger name.

    Attanger or Zotmoov are the current plugins that reproduce most of Zotfile's functionality in Zotero v7.
    https://github.com/wileyyugioh/zotmoov
    https://github.com/MuiseDestiny/zotero-attanger
  • (@emilianoeheyns: Can you remove that repo?)
  • Thank you so much @tim820 . I'm going to try the first one, which is a little easier for me to understand. but first I have to make the backup in question
  • People that would like to have "send to tablet" feature and "get from tablet" Zotfile feature implemented, please visit
    https://github.com/wileyyugioh/zotmoov/issues/44#issuecomment-2337502061 where I made a feature request, authors seem to be listing.
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