no stored attachments available in groups ?

andreas_plesch · 2025-09-24T18:31:38+00:00

I have a synced group library shared with members. All items in the in the library also are part of an another, personal, library where many have pdf attachments as synced, stored files. The attachments only show up in the personal library but not in the group library. So group members do not have access to the attachments although they are synced and stored on Zotero. This is an institutional account with unlimited storage.
I cannot add attachments to the items in the group library except for web urls, all other options are greyed out. I suspect that the reason is that the items are listed also in the personal library where it is possible to add attachments.

Is there a way to share attachments in a shared group library ? I thought it is possible but it seems there is a conflict preventing this.

fcheslack · 2025-09-24T18:33:29+00:00

You can't have file sharing for a Public Open Zotero group. It needs to be Public Closed, or Private.

https://www.zotero.org/support/groups#group_types

andreas_plesch · 2025-09-24T18:46:51+00:00

Of course. Thanks, that's it ! And I had reread carefully this section but only looked for 'attachment'. Perhaps worth adding:
'Open public groups do not allow file sharing with attachments.'

andreas_plesch · 2025-09-24T19:10:53+00:00

Hm, I changed the group type to Public Closed but attachments still are not listed for group library items. Is there anything else to consider ?

fcheslack · 2025-09-24T19:17:15+00:00

You need to change the library settings to allow file editing by members or admins. This defaulted to no file storage because the group was originally Public Open.

andreas_plesch · 2025-09-24T19:51:38+00:00

Thanks. After changing the group type I had also changed the setting to allow file editing by any group member, as well as library editing by any group member but still the same result. Perhaps I need to create a new group with these setting at creation time ?

adamsmith · 2025-09-24T20:13:12+00:00

No, you definitely don't need a new group. Make sure that you successfully sync the group after those changes (e.g., create an item online and make sure it appears locally)

fcheslack · 2025-09-24T20:22:44+00:00

Also, if these are items that you've already dragged from the library with attachments, you would need to delete them and drag again in order to get the attachment to come along with the parent.

andreas_plesch · 2025-09-24T20:32:12+00:00

It works to manually re-add attachments to the group library items, as file copies from the file attachments of the personal library item. This is workable though a bit cumbersome and duplicative.

andreas_plesch · 2025-09-24T21:22:11+00:00

Thanks for the tips. With these, my understanding is that items can be shared among collections and libraries (and have multiple parents) but their attachments cannot be shared that way and need to be duplicated/copied for each occurrence of an item. So when I drag an item to another collection where it already is referenced/exists, nothing happens. It is then necessary to delete the existing reference to trigger copying of attachments when dragging an item.