How to downgrade back from Zotero 7?

NGO-Guy
The hard work the zotero-team put into the new version is very much appreciated. It looks good and I am sure, it will be a great next step. But since the upgrade, mdnotes and zotfile dont work anymore and the pdf-viewer is not working very well: some files just plainly dont work and in other files, some elements only show up sometimes and disappear when zooming in.
The former (plugins) was kind of expected and though sad is tolerable. The latter is very, very bad.
So, I would prefer to go back to zotero 6. Any way to do that?
Best
NGO-Guy
  • dstillman
    Zotero 6 is still available from the download page, but staying on Zotero 6 isn't a good option — parts will stop working eventually and you won't receive any support here for problems. So you should provide actual examples of files that aren't working well for you in Zotero 7 so that we can investigate. Zotero 7 was in beta for over a year, and we have no reason to believe there are major problems with the PDF reader.
  • damnation
    To replace ZotFile you can use either ZotMoov or Attanger.
  • NGO-Guy
    Thanks a lot for your answers - very much appreciated. I will try the suggested plugins when I upgrade again to Zotero 7. However, Zotero 7 is basically unusable for me right now, since the PDF-viewer is disfunctional for the most part: Slow and sluggish, not rendering pages etc. No problems with PDF in any other app (Firefox, Adobe, PDF24...).
  • dstillman
    Again, you need to actually provide examples. Other people are not reporting what you're reporting.
  • NGO-Guy
    I will reinstall it and even try it on different machines, when I have time to do so. Could you provide some information what you need and how?
    Documents I tried:
    - https://www.circhive.eu/resources
    - https://doi.org/10.14512/9783987263361 "Faktencheck Artenvielfalt"

    - the former documents: zooming in using ctrl and mousewheel led to pages not rendering. However, if I zoomed out again and moved to previous pages, these were rendered. When I then moved down again, the previously not rendered pages were rendered again.
    - the latter document didnt open at all - this has over 1.000 pages though...

    system: Intel I7-3770, 3.4 GHZ, just noticed however, that it is still Windows 10.
  • martynas_b
    @NGO-Guy

    1) Could you send the 10.14512/9783987263361 file to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread?
    2) How much memory does your system have?
    3) What is your screen resolution?
  • NGO-Guy
    1) its about 120 MB, thus I cant send it. However, the download is free: https://www.oekom.de/buch/faktencheck-artenvielfalt-9783987260957 -> on the right hand side: "erhältlich als" - check "PDF 0,00€" - then you can download the document "freier download".
    2) Memory: 16GB
    3) 3840 x 2160
  • martynas_b
    @NGO-Guy

    Thanks, I was able to download the file. However, I haven't been able to reproduce the issue so far. Seems like an issue when there is not enough memory for Zotero.

    1) Are you using the 64-bit version of Zotero?
    2) Is there a difference if you have only one tab open compared to having multiple tabs open?
  • NGO-Guy
    1) yes, 64 bit.
    2) I tried to open it as the only tab.
    I can open it without any problems when using Zotero 6.
  • dstillman
    Can you reproduce this with all plugins disabled?
  • NGO-Guy
    since none of my plugins were working/enabled due to not being compatible with zotero 7, I can reproduce :-)
  • martynas_b
    @NGO-Guy could you test whether the integrated PDF viewer in Firefox can properly display the PDF files?
  • NGO-Guy
    Sorry - holiday. I just checked: In Firefox, the documents (including zooming in-out) are displayed without any problems.
  • martynas_b
    @NGO-Guy

    1) Is there a difference if you reduce your screen resolution?
    2) Can you provide a Debug ID for loading these PDF files?
  • martynas_b
    I'm curious if other users on this forum can reproduce the issue on Windows when zooming in on these PDF files:

    https://www.circhive.eu/resources
    https://www.oekom.de/buch/faktencheck-artenvielfalt-9783987260957
  • NGO-Guy
    @martynas_b

    1) Is there a difference if you reduce your screen resolution?
    2) Can you provide a Debug ID for loading these PDF files?
    I will check it out - however I need to re-install Zotero 7 and go through everything again. It will take me about a week, since it is very busy right now.
  • josephgarnier
    @dstillman your said " Zotero 6 isn't a good option", but there are still valid reasons for going back to Zotero 6. I understand that technically you sometimes have to get rid of technical debt, but in this case the lack of backward compatibility has broken what made one of the most robust Open Source projects...

    I've lost so many useful features since Zotero 7
    https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u1934613/atvjs20kn7k4mti4txc7.png
  • NGO-Guy
    @josephgarnier
    I agree. For me, the loss of zotfile and mdnotes hurts most. And some addons will not be updated to the new version...
    However: I want to reiterate, that I appreciate the hard work of the zotero-team and enjoy zotero very much! Keep up the good work!
  • tim820
    edited October 7, 2024
    Zotfile's linked file features are covered by Zotmoov or Attanger. Zotmoov has also added some basic Send-To-Tablet-like operations. And there is apparently now a plugin just for that.
    https://github.com/zouyonghao/zotero-sync-to-tablet

    BTW plugins from v6 showing as disabled in v7 does not mean that a v7-compatible version is not available for download. For example DOI Manager is v7 compatible:
    https://github.com/bwiernik/zotero-shortdoi/releases

  • josephgarnier
    edited October 7, 2024
    @NGO-Guy
    Yes, this is absolutely not a criticism of the devs' investment or their skills, but rather of the decisions that have been made regarding governance.

    For me, and I know I'm not the only one to think so, the ZotFile features should have been integrated natively into Zotero 7. The code existes and several of us even suggested updates on GitHub, but as this plugin has been inactive for several years now, nobody can use them.
  • aborel
    edited October 7, 2024
    The scite plugin also appears to be available for Z7 (assuming it is the same one - I could be wrong about that): https://github.com/scitedotai/scite-zotero-plugin

    Going back to Z6 is not a solution, it's a work-around :-) The longer-term solution is to find suitable replacements, sometimes with different plugins, sometimes with the new functionalities of the main software.
  • tim820
    This plugin store lists most of the v7 compatible plugins. Chrome's right-click page Translate works well ...
    https://zotero-chinese.com/plugins/
  • josephgarnier
    edited October 7, 2024
    @tim820 "BTW plugins from v6 showing as disabled in v7 does not mean that a v7-compatible version is not available for download." Good to know, ty ! Because Zotero has disable all my plugins and it tells me that there are no updates for these plugins when I click on the update button.

    About suggesting plugins, it would be nice if they were put on this page for those who don't go to the forum: https://www.zotero.org/support/plugins. I guess it's up to the plugin authors to do this.
  • gduffner
    Scite and DOI Manager are updated for Zotero 7 already. Perhaps you need to manually update them.
  • aborel
    edited October 7, 2024
    Yes, sometimes "no updates available" must be read as "no AUTOMATIC updates available". That's because writing the proper transition code to ensure support for both Z6 and Z7, including the plugin upgrade mechanism, can take more work than a plugin developer is willing to provide.

    Edited to add, just to prevent any misunderstanding: this is entirely the developer's appreciation, I'm not blaming the Zenodo team in any way. Documentation is available, and the beta phase was long enough for most plugins to be ported if the authors were motivated.
  • dstillman
    Yes, to be clear, we provided documentation on how to serve updates to Zotero 6 plugins in a way that should allow them to be updated to Zotero 7 versions without reinstallation. As far as we know, that works, but not every plugin developer did it.
    For me, and I know I'm not the only one to think so, the ZotFile features should have been integrated natively into Zotero 7.
    We implemented annotation extraction in Zotero 6 and powerful filename customization in Zotero 7. For the rest, from Stored Files vs. Linked Files: "Given the advanced nature of linked-file workflows, and the differences on individual systems, we're not able to help troubleshoot problems with specific setups."

    We're obviously not going to integrate a feature that we don't think the vast majority of people should use and that we can't even provide support for. There are multiple plugins that provide this functionality for Zotero 7.

    Advanced features being implemented by plugins is a feature, not a bug.
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