Upgrade StorageOne Drive and Zotero Sync
I have an extensive reference documentation (~65GB), I prefer to have it on One Drive. I followed the steps in this page, https://peterfalkingham.com/2025/04/15/setting-up-zotero-with-onedrive-dropbox-google-drive-etc/. I did look at few responses on how to setup one drive on the zotero forum (ex: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/81479/zotero-to-onedrive).
My questions are
1. What is the impact it has on Zotero Sync and Storage? Under Settings -> Sync, should both options "sync automatically" and "sync full-text content" mean the files (not data) are sync-ed to Zotero Storage?
2. When a reference is downloaded using browser plug-in, does it automatically download to the linked attachments storage area and create a link or should I manually add the file to the attachments storage area and establish the link. The reason I am asking this question is it is unclear in the manual, https://www.zotero.org/support/attaching_files#stored_files_and_linked_files
Note: Data directory (H:\Users\\zotero) is local to the computer.
Thank you!
My questions are
1. What is the impact it has on Zotero Sync and Storage? Under Settings -> Sync, should both options "sync automatically" and "sync full-text content" mean the files (not data) are sync-ed to Zotero Storage?
2. When a reference is downloaded using browser plug-in, does it automatically download to the linked attachments storage area and create a link or should I manually add the file to the attachments storage area and establish the link. The reason I am asking this question is it is unclear in the manual, https://www.zotero.org/support/attaching_files#stored_files_and_linked_files
Note: Data directory (H:\Users\\zotero) is local to the computer.
Thank you!
2. Zotero doesn't, but the Zotmoov plugin described in the linked post does this for you.
The LABD only affects where Zotero *looks* when opening linked PDF files. And you only need to tell it where to look if (1) you have more than one computer, and (2) the location of your linked files is different on each computer. So if neither 1 or 2 apply to you, you do not need a LABD setting (however it will not generally cause any harm to set a LABD. But having set it on one computer, you have to set it on every computer, even if the linked files path is the same on each). If you do need a LABD, it will be set to the same directory as the Zotmoov 'Move To' directory.
The post also doesn't clearly show turning OFF Zotero file syncing.
@tim820 - Thank you! Your explanation provides better context compared to the manual page.
Guess key question is: I want the files to be on onedrive folder and not on zotero storage. Are the settings correct to make sure we are using onedrive for files and not zotero cloud storage?
Thanks!
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u17217897/jq87o9o2s8s5jgom5tgg.png
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u17217897/xnqj4hgaijrp1nlyhs36.png
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u17217897/707ubmxn0gw1by8o73ev.png
The various locations look right to me
And you only want the second box under File Syncing checked if you have a Group Library. Linked files don't work with Group libraries, so Group PDF files have to be "stored" files (which count only against the group owner's online file storage quota).
In Zotmoov settings, I would also uncheck Automatically Move/Copy Files to Subdirectory unless you *really* want that. Linked files are much easier to manage/locate if in a single folder (the 'Move To' folder). The Zotmoov documentation tends to make people think they should use that function, to put PDFs in subdirectories in their OS that match their Zotero collection names. But it was just a rarely-used feature in Zotfile that Zotmoov also implemented.
The Automatically Delete External Linked files setting is there because Zotero does not delete linked files when you delete their parent item. So you can be left with "orphan" files in your linked files folder. Zotmoov can do that deletion for you. So you should turn that setting ON. People have also used the delitemwithatt plugin for that (you can have both).
BTW "sync full-text content" confuses many people. They assume it means syncing of PDF files via Zotero file storage. It doesn't. It's the text indexing data *from* the files, that Zotero uses for searches. So it's "data" (like item metadata), not files. Data syncing is free and unlimited. That's why it's set to ON.
As noted, you don't need a Linked Attachment Base Directory setting unless you have two or more computers and the (parent) path to your Onedrive linked files folder is different on at least two computers. If that becomes the case later, it's easy to set a LABD then.
@tim820 - Thank you! The reason for move/copy setting is to migrate the current files stored to the new onedrive location. If this setting is not required, I can definitely uncheck it.
LABD - need to make sure my lab system in secure location and my note computer is in sync. This is done through onedrive. In the past, I only had the note computer with research dating back to 1987.
I agree on the sync full-text context comment. It can confuse. Thank you for the initiative to address this issue.
Once again, thank you very much. This conversation is much appreciated.