Zotero randomly removes PDFs from parent item, but keeps it in storage/missing annotations

sterreterhaar
I've noticed in the past two weeks that two of my PDFs were removed from their respective parent items, although my other notes and snapshots remained with the parent item. I find it upsetting that all my annotations on the PDFs were removed as well, especially because I could later find the PDFs in the Zotero storage folder, but not the old annotations. What is triggering their random destruction? I have ZotFile installed, but as it's not compatible with this version, it has been removed. I would like to prevent this issue from reoccurring, because rereading and annotating my work takes a significant amount of time.
  • dstillman
    edited 24 days ago
    It's very unlikely that Zotero itself is doing this, and I suspect you're misinterpreting what you're seeing.

    A file in the 'storage' folder is almost certainly still in one of your libraries. You can paste the 8-character folder name into the Zotero search bar in All Fields & Tags mode in each library root and trash to find it. It might be the same file, or it might be the same file in a different library.

    Annotations are stored in the database, so you wouldn't see those by opening the PDFs outside of Zotero.

    You might have accidentally moved the attachment to the trash or dragged it out of its parent to be a standalone item, or some plugin you have installed might have done something.

    If you provide the 8-character folder name for one of the files, we might be able to say more.
  • sterreterhaar
    Thank you so much for your answer. I really appreciate your help. Using this method I could find the PDFs again in my library, except for one which is also missing from storage. The PDFs had somehow changed parent item. What could be causing this? I'm quite familiar with Zotero and have never had this happen before updating it. Is this perhaps the result of a new hotkey that I've been mistakenly using, or an issue with Zotfile? Either way, I'm glad I know how to fix it now. Thanks for teaching me, and for your help.
  • dstillman
    Generally this would just be due to accidentally dragging an attachment onto another item. There's no shortcut key that would do this.
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