Issue syncing images inside Notes (using Attanger/OneDrive + External Image Host)

T-A-N-A
Hi,

I am encountering an issue with syncing images embedded within Zotero Notes across two Windows computers.

My Setup:

OS: Windows (2 devices)

Syncing: I use Zotero Data Sync for library items and notes.

PDF Attachments: I use the Attanger plugin combined with OneDrive to manage PDFs as Linked Files. This part works perfectly.

The Problem: Images inserted into Zotero Notes do not sync between my computers. An image inserted on PC A does not display on PC B.

What I have tried: To bypass Zotero's internal storage limit, I set up a self-hosted image host using Cloudflare. I attempted to insert images into my notes using the direct URL or Markdown syntax.

Result: The images display correctly on the original computer (PC A). However, on the second computer (PC B), the images fail to load/display.

Verification: My Cloudflare image links work perfectly in other software on both computers.

Could anyone explain why Zotero on the second device fails to render these external image links, and how I can solve this?

Thanks in advance.
  • dstillman
    Syncing images in notes requires Zotero file syncing, either Zotero Storage or WebDAV.
  • T-A-N-A
    Does enabling Zotero file syncing also sync PDF attachments? If so, the storage space might not be sufficient. Are there any other methods to fix the issue of self-hosted images not displaying in notes?
  • tim820
    edited 7 days ago
    If you are using linked PDFs, those PDFs are not being synced by Zotero. But if you turn Zotero file syncing ON, anything *else* under Zotero\storage would be synced via Zotero servers - assuming their total space is less than your online file storage quota (300mb free). That would include the note images, and also any attachment file types that are not in your linked-files folder (eg HTML web snapshots). You can check in your OS how much space is being used under Zotero\storage. Of course you could move those other attachment file types into linked storage as well, so that they do not consume that quota space needed for your note images. Reducing individual note image *file* sizes (while keeping the same sized image) would also be a useful strategy to reduce space usage.

    As you probably found, each note image is stored as image.png in a uniquely- and arbitrarily-named folder under Zotero\storage. There is one folder per image, with nothing else in its folder. So if a note has 4 images, there will be 4 folders/PNG files. The note's text content is instead stored in the Zotero database, along with embedded placeholder/pointers to any named image folders in the note (so that note information is all synced via Zotero data syncing). That's how Zotero constructs the complete note for display on any given computer. If Zotero cannot find the folder/image for an image in a given note on a given computer, it will just show an empty square placeholder in the note.

    Other possible solutions to the problem of syncing images would include adding images as linked attachment files to each item, instead of embedding them in notes. Of course depending on how you use the images, that might not be useful at all.

    Another solution would be to symlink (only) your Zotero\storage folder hierarchy to the cloud, and across computers. That would not require Zotero file syncing, but is an advanced-user option.
    https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/90648/symbolic-link

    Another solution (somewhat tedious) that would not require Zotero file syncing would be to mirror *only* the folder/images structure from Zotero\storage in a separate cloud repository (Dropbox, Onedrive, Google Drive, etc). You would be responsible for copying/pasting that repository from/to Zotero\storage to keep it up to date on each Zotero computer (eg with an tool that only copies newly-added PNG folders/files). So the folder name placeholder is already synced in the note data (by Zotero), and you have copied the folder/image across computers. You could try this first with a single note/folder/image to see if it works for you. It's basically a partial version of keeping Zotero storage up to date across computers by copying all those files between them (which some people who want to avoid Zotero servers apparently do) ....
    https://www.zotero.org/support/sync#alternative_syncing_solutions
  • T-A-N-A
    Thank you for your detailed response. Through your professional explanation, I now understand Zotero's storage logic. After careful research and consideration, I decided to store non-PDF attachments in another WebDAV service, while PDFs are stored as links in OneDrive via a plugin. So far, everything is working well, but I’m unsure if synchronization conflicts might occur in the future (for example, if PDFs that haven’t been converted to links in time are stored as attachments by WebDAV prematurely). Once again, thank you for your reply. However, I still hope that images from the image hosting service can be displayed properly in Zotero notes, as that would simplify the solution significantly.
Sign In or Register to comment.