Upgrade StorageChanging PDF storage location
Hi, rookie ICT user here.
Have changed institutions so moved PDF library from old OneDrive account to new one. I need to link my Zotero library to this new location- in Advanced Settings I changed the Linked Attachment Base Directory to my new OneDrive folder but understand this might only apply to new imports- when I try to open PDFs in the reader I'm still getting the 'attached file couldn't be found at the path' and lists Zotero storage pathway- I thought changing the Linked Base Directory to One Drive would correct this? I've installed ZotMoov but am not sure whether that can help. Have tried quitting and reopening Zotero. Thanks for any help, this feels basic but am confused.
Have changed institutions so moved PDF library from old OneDrive account to new one. I need to link my Zotero library to this new location- in Advanced Settings I changed the Linked Attachment Base Directory to my new OneDrive folder but understand this might only apply to new imports- when I try to open PDFs in the reader I'm still getting the 'attached file couldn't be found at the path' and lists Zotero storage pathway- I thought changing the Linked Base Directory to One Drive would correct this? I've installed ZotMoov but am not sure whether that can help. Have tried quitting and reopening Zotero. Thanks for any help, this feels basic but am confused.
1. the path Zotero lists in the error message - where it *thought* the file should be.
2. where that file actually is.
Can you give us those bits of information for one file ? And what your Linked Attachment Base Directory setting is.
Regarding what you said about the Linked Attachment Base Directory perhaps only applying for future files, that is not the case. It applies to all linked files in your database, now and in the future. When a LABD is set for the first time on any Zotero computer you use, all existing linked file paths in the database are changed, from explicit 'absolute' paths to 'relative' paths with a special placeholder prefix. When you then open a linked file, Zotero inserts the LABD in place of the placeholder prefix, to construct the path to find the file. The appropriate LABD needs to be set on each computer you use. Future linked files have their path stored in the same way.
1) For Clayton et al 2015:
The attached file could not be found at the following path:
C:\Users\SA06CS\Zotero\storage\BF6F4675\journal.pone.0122870.PDF
It may have been moved or deleted outside of Zotero, or, if the file was added on another computer, it may not yet have been synced to or from zotero.org.
2) When I open Zotero on my old computer and open that ref to 'Show in Finder' (was using Mac, now on Windows), it shows a pathway via Zotero storage. I think that my whole library was previously stored in Zotero folders (and doubled up in separate OneDrive folders, from which I'd drag/drop into Zotero to add them). Which is confusing as my entire library is over 3GB so very much exceeded the free limit and I don't have paid storage- any clues? A new complexity is that I now notice that I had moved literature from Mendeley to Zotero in 2022 and I can't remember how I did it- so I have a feeling there are refs stored in the Zotero folders on old computer that aren't doubled up in OneDrive (which has anything I added since 2022)- now I'm really confused. Do you know if there's a simple way to copy over the files as stored on my old Mac (I was easily able to copy over the metadata by just logging in, but the PDFs seem to be the problem)
ps I'd changed the LABD to C:\Users\SA06CS\OneDrive - SAMS\Documents\Literature which is the folder on my new computer to which I'd moved PDFs stored in my old One Drive, but when I click on refs in reader that I know are in that C: drive, they still give me error notice as above with the old Zotero storage pathway. Just wish I had someone sitting next to me helping, feel v inept.
Therefore no addition of, or adjustment of the Linked Attachment Base Directory will affect Zotero's ability to find such files.
If such files were opening OK on your old computer, then you were obviously working with those 'stored' versions, not any versions that may have been on Onedrive (as well ?).
The simplest way to restore that situation would be to copy your old data folder to your new computer, as in option B below:
https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/transferring_a_library
Note "If you've already opened Zotero on the new computer, there will already be a Zotero data folder with an empty database, and you should delete the whole data folder before copying the new folder to the same location. "
From your description it's not possible to say how any of the Onedrive files may factor into this. If any of them are linked files, then the LABD setting should work for Zotero to find them. If not, they may just be copies from somewhere along the way.
Keep good backups of each location as it is now and as you work, should you have to revert any changes.
That will make your setup more secure, and make it straightforward to replicate your setup on a new computer.