Upgrade StorageNew built-in Zotero support on Boox devices!
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.
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.
Any other user of this built-in Zotero feature, who might share feedback?
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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?
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.