Read on my iPad
Hey everybody,
so, I have the following issue: I would like to say which if my entries (including pdfs) are online so I can access them from my iPad to read.
Best case would be if I could just decide that I want one folder to be synced online, everything else can stay on my main pc and doesn't need to be online.
I also don't need to download the articles on my iPad. It's fine if I can just read them there while connected to the internet, which currently doesn't work for some reason.
Thanks and best regards!
so, I have the following issue: I would like to say which if my entries (including pdfs) are online so I can access them from my iPad to read.
Best case would be if I could just decide that I want one folder to be synced online, everything else can stay on my main pc and doesn't need to be online.
I also don't need to download the articles on my iPad. It's fine if I can just read them there while connected to the internet, which currently doesn't work for some reason.
Thanks and best regards!
Is this just a money question or do you have other reasons you don't just want your files to sync when you add them?
And the thing is, I don't even know which of my files are synced nor I can decide on that.
And it's not necessarily a money question: The amount of storage that is free would be enough, I am fairly certain. I don't need more storage than that.
Attachments are not automatically downloaded on iOS devices, so if you just want to read some specific documents on your iPad, you can download only those. On iOS there is a filter for "Downloaded Files", so you can see which attachments are downloaded on device.
If, for some reason, you really want to keep sync off for most items and attachments and only sync some specific items, I can see one solution. You could create a private group, then disable sync for "My Library" and enable sync for that new group. Then you can move items which you want to sync to that group. That way only that one group would be synced while keeping everything else local to your PC.
However it can be dangerous and I don't recommend it. If something happens to your PC or you delete something by accident, you'll loose it forever. If it's synced to our servers you can always retrieve your data.
No, but the issue is that I cannot download only those.
I have no way to download the files via Zotero.
And I can't just "sync everything" because I have like 5GB of attachments.
But for this specific project, I only need a couple of those.
I tried not syncing anything, but it doesn't change Zotero saying I have used up, like, 1500% of my storage. I can't free up space, it simply doesn't work.
Otherwise your idea of making a new group and only syncing that should work and I think would be what I am looking for...but since I can't free up anything, it doesn't let me.
And this isn't actually the case: You can absolutely sync 5GBs of attachments; many people do. That's why I was asking whether this is about money or some other concern. If you can spend $60/year on Zotero, this will give you by far the smoothest experience.
For the group, I'd be a bit more weary about this -- moving items back to the library from the group is a mess and if you do you that'll break the connection to references in any Word docs that you have inserted, so I don't think it's a great workflow. But if you really want to use it, disable file sync for My library in the Zotero prefs, then use the purge storage function for My Library on https://www.zotero.org/settings/storage, then set up the group.
Seems more logical, as space on devices is limited.
Sure, I get that you need money, but I don't need 5 GB.
The workaround you suggested works and it's less than 300 mb, which is what I thought. Plus, I don't need it for a year anyway (hopefully at least).
Thanks for all the help!
I could not access it from my device, because I could not sync it with the online library, because the storage was limited, because it was used up by stuff I don't need in my online library.
So, in my case, the point of syncing was not to make everything available from any device, but rather only make the first uploaded documents available from any device, which is not what I needed.
The way you've decided it should work is not relevant here. It would be confusing and error-prone and cause people to not be able to access files when they needed them and lose large portions of their library when their computer crashed, and we would never implement something like that.
If you don't want to pay for a subscription, you can use WebDAV. But one way or another, you need space for all your files.
And I am not out of space: I need approximately 300 MB of data in the cloud and that is what I have when using Zotero for free. I don't see how I am "out of space" then...especially considering the solution brought up here did work! Even better than I originally thought, so I am really grateful for that and I have enough storage.
You say:
"cause people to not be able to access files when they needed them"
The reason why I started this thread is precisely because I could not access my files when I needed them. This was my problem.
I guess it is a definitory problem, though. I use Zotero as a continous library of articles and books. It would make no sense to always sync everything, as I usually only need a fragment for any given project.
So I will keep that in mind.
Thanks for all the help!
But Zotero doesn't work that way. We don't have our own library of PDFs which you download. You create your own library of articles, PDFs or other items, which gets uploaded to your Zotero Storage or WebDAV (depends how you set it up) and then you can choose on your devices which attachments you want to actually download and carry on that device.
So saying you don't know which files get synced and free storage is enough space for you (but then suddenly you don't have enough space) is just misunderstanding the foundation how Zotero works. You apparently have a slightly bigger library (5+ gigs from what you wrote) and free Zotero storage plan doesn't cover that, so your files stopped uploading to our storage and you couldn't access them from other devices. If you would have bought more storage or set up your own WebDAV you wouldn't have any problems.
Anyway if you're fine with the solution above, that's ok. Just bear in mind that if your computer breaks or you delete something by accident, we won't be able to help you get them back. Those files are not stored on our servers, but only on your computer.
And then I would like to choose which files I can access from other devices.
I have no need to upload everything and I never did, I think, especially because I think I am a hoarder and I love simply downloading the first 5 pages of interesting google scholar search results.
I mean, that's why I like Zotero. It's not as messy as I am.
Anyway, I think it works now, I can even read the pdfs offline, so it works better than I thought!
Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it, despite me enjoying arguing way, way, way too much. So, additional thanks for humoring me in that endeavour.
Also, I do think I learned something about cloud storage, so that's nice.