Zotero is not identifying my downloaded PDFs

tlducree
When I download my articles I get a message saying that Zotero connector is not available on URLs. This has never happened before. I have always been able to save these downloads in Zotero without a problem. Attached is a screenshot of a PDF it is saying is a URL.

PLEASE HELP!!

Thank you


https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u7856799/wofz7nd4alli67v48agr.png
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited September 15, 2025
    No, it says it's not available on file URLs. It can only run on http(s):// URLs.

    If you already have a file on your computer, you can just drag it to Zotero.
  • tlducree
    Why is it giving me this message when it has never done this before. I tried dragging the download over to my library and it doesn't show up. How do I download the file so that I don't have to take the extra step of dragging the article over? I have a lot of research to enter and adding this step will take a lot of time.

    Thank you
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited September 15, 2025
    The Zotero Connector has never run on file URLs.

    You can see the path in the address bar in your screenshot. You've just opened a file that's saved on your computer. If you want to save directly to Zotero from your browser, you need to be on a website.

    You'll want to make sure your browser is configured to preview PDFs directly — at http(s):// URLs — rather than downloading the file to disk first. It's possible that setting was changed in your browser. In Chrome, go to Privacy and security → Site settings → Additional content settings → PDF documents (or go to chrome://settings/content/pdfDocuments?search=handle in the address bar) and make sure it's set to "Open PDFs in Chrome", not "Download PDFs".

    For a file already on your computer, you would need to drag from Finder or add it from the menu options in the Zotero app.
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