New built-in Zotero support on Boox devices!

edited August 23, 2024
I haven't seen this discussed on the forum yet, but updated Boox devices have built in Zotero support. You can add your Zotero account as a cloud service in the library tab and download papers from your Zotero account. The pdf-reader syncs your annotations back to Zotero. This lets you use the built in PDF-reader with its fast rendering of strokes and automatic recognition of underlining as pdf-highlights. So far it works on my boox note air 2 plus but not on my boox Nova air which has an older firmware.

The only problems I've come across so far:
* The sync does not always start automatically. I'm not sure what triggers it.
* Zotero recognizes highlighting and most underlining. However, drawings are treated as part of the page and can't be deleted in Zotero.
* It is difficult to find papers in the GUI so I use the Zotero app to put the pdfs in a collection and find them from the collection.
* I don't think it will work with epubs.

But it works very well. And there is much less lag with drawing than in the app.

My note air 2 plus is on the 2024-07-01 firmware.
  • Hi,
    Any other user of this built-in Zotero feature, who might share feedback?
  • edited September 16, 2024
    well spotted - many thanks! @oyvindbs.

    Just connected my Zotero account on Boox - the browsing is quite neat as it inherits the structure of the (web) library, also that it's quite responsive (think of using a file browser). However, as I use my own webdav for attachments - this is not supported by the built-in service on Boox, alas. However, with the built-in service I've been able to see the bibliographic details of my entries - just not the attachment itself.
  • It seems that attachments appears in boox just only when they are uploaded from a pc to the Zotero account
  • @jarombae
    I am using a Note Air 3C, firmware 2024-09-10. The native cloud sync does in general work, with all directories, items, and metadata available but there are two problems:
    1) It sometimes takes ~10 seconds to load the list of folders in my library
    2) PDFs are only available if they have been added to items by hand. PDFs automatically downloaded by Zotero e.g. after automatically adding items with an identifier cannot be accessed.

    The second point is bad enough to make this implementation unusable for me. Hopefully BOOX will fix the issue, but they have a bad reputation for support, so I'm not optimistic.
  • (2) doesn’t really make sense the way you’re describing it. Any item that is synced as a stored attachment should be available the same way. Are you able to view the items that are automatically added on the web library on Zotero.org?
  • I can confirm @jarombae 2) workaround, for some reason, if you upload the PDF directly it does appear in Boox (in my case a NA3C), if you use let's say the chrome extension to include a new document, it doesn't work. I've tried this several times to confirm.
  • I can also confirm what @brandonescamilla says. I'd like to ask smth else: did anyone figure out how to add zotero notes from the BOOX directly? I don't seem to be able to, even If I first create an empty note from the desktop application.
  • I don't see any of my pdf's in Zotero on my boox, have you got a problem like that?
  • edited October 15, 2024
    Hi, I'm still trying to get to know Zotero and am generally delighted that Boox have that sync option.

    What would be the best workflow for me?
    - As a Boox owner for a few years I have been syncing my pdfs between OneDrive and Boox via OneSync, so that I can read and annotate them mainly on Boox but sync them back to OneDrive to access them from other devices.
    - What is the best way to get those annotated pdfs into Zotero? Is there a direct OneDrive option? Or can I really just get them manually into Zotero from my PC?
    - Once I work with Zotero, is the better workflow to work on Boox WITHIN the Z beta app or is there a way to continue work within Neoreader and sync the pdf back to Z?

    - (To make it even more complicated, is there a way to create a workflow with Obsidian and Zotero - Onedrive - Boox?) ;-)

    Thank you!
  • Does anyone find the Zotero Cloud integration painfully slow at times? It takes really long to open collections, and then go to attachment and open an attachment. Is there a workaround to getting to my PDFs faster?
  • @avoyager i guess the answer depends on how important hand drawing is. I find the zotero client good enough to just read and highlight, but neoreader is of course better for drawing and to reduce the input lag.

    The zotero integration on boox is a way to get the pdfs into neoreader but you have to download the pdfs one by one. the sync back to zotero is also not instant to say the least. I think it always happens in the end but i haven't found a way to control it manually.

    The android client does not let you export the pdfs (yet?) but you can always use the web library and download /upload there. I use it to read epubs which are not supported in the app yet and I works well for reading.

    @ketank2 I don't know if it helps but I have a separate collection on the top of my library with the files I want to download ("___boox"). Since there are few pdfs in this collection it is not as slow as loading the whole library. I can also add papers there on my iphone zotero and then download from the boox.
  • Thanks @oyvindbs. I've been experimenting with separate collections instead of sub-collections. It is a little better, but honestly using ZotFile send to tablet/get from tablet was much smoother. Not having to do the extra steps on a different Zotero client (PC or iPhone) is a big reason for trying the cloud sync anyway!

    The NeoReader experience is just to much better than the Zotero Beta I tried, or even any other PDF reader. The most ideal thing would be if the Zotero app opens files in NeoReader, and converts annotations to the Zotero format.
  • Hey! I have a Boox Go 10.3 and am using the official Zotero integration but while my annotations on the Boox make their way back to Zotero, any changes I make on those PDFs in Zotero (highlights, drawing, images) don't appear back in Boox.

    I've even tried deleting the local file and forcing a re-download. Even when I start with a PDF with Zotero annotations, they never render on the Boox.

    Any suggestions?
  • edited October 22, 2024
    @xkuri if by *official* you mean that of boox's rather than of zotero's, then it's simply that the zotero-generated annotations are saved only in zotero's database, not directly to the pdf files themselves. As far as I'm aware zotero has not (and plan not) to do integration with another app/platform, it's for the platforms to integrate with zotero.

    However, I guess the reverse (i.e. annotations by boox to appear on zotero) works because that involves editing the pdf files themselves, and zotero does read the edited files. As to the mechanism/frequency of zotero's accessing the edited files w/o using the zotero app, i'm not sure.
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