Upgrade StorageUnderstanding Zotero file storage quota
I recently received an error that said that I "reached your Zotero File Storage quota. Some files were not uploaded. Other Zotero data will continue to sync to the server."
I have linked my Linked Attachment Base Directory to Dropbox and have been adding documents by using "Add Link to File", which I thought would help with storage limits. Did I misunderstand this? Why am I receiving this error and what are some solutions?
Thank you.
I have linked my Linked Attachment Base Directory to Dropbox and have been adding documents by using "Add Link to File", which I thought would help with storage limits. Did I misunderstand this? Why am I receiving this error and what are some solutions?
Thank you.
1) Your storage quota is getting filled up by groups (which don't support linked files). You can look at https://www.zotero.org/settings/storage to check which libraries actually use up your storage.
2) Your storage is getting filled up by files (most likely Snapshots) that aren't getting moved to Dropbox. Easiest way to tell is to look at the way your non-PDF attachments look. If they don't have a chain icon over them, they are syncing with the Zotero servers.
3) Something isn't working as you intend it to. If PDFs aren't getting moved to a linked attachment directory the way you intend to, you'd see PDFs in that don't appear with the chain icon in Zotero
4) Quite unlikely but possible: images in Notes count against your file sync quota and if you use those a lot it's possible to go over 300MB
A. Do you have file syncing turned ON ? Unless you deliberately want a hybrid storage scheme (uncommon), where some attachments file are "linked" and some are "stored", a linked-files setup should have file syncing turned OFF in Zotero settings. That will ensure that any files which do end up in local Zotero storage (eg web snapshots, note image files), deliberately or inadvertently, don't get synced to Zotero servers and use up your online file storage quota (300mb free). Data syncing remains ON.
B. If you use a plugin (Zotmoov or Attanger) to manage the saving of attachments as linked files, the plugin can be told which file types you want it to move to your linked-files folder. But people using a plugin sometimes forget to include Snapshots (HTML files) in that list, with the result that those HTML files get placed in local Zotero storage (and if you have file syncing turned ON, they get uploaded to Zotero servers - see A). Of course if you don't actually want the Zotero web connector to automatically save web page snapshots *at all*, you can turn that OFF in Zotero (desktop) General settings.
BTW the Linked Attachment Base Directory set in Zotero settings has no effect on where linked files get *stored*. It only affects where Zotero *looks* for linked files (and is mainly for when their parent path is different on different computers). Most people use a plugin (Zotmoov or Attanger) to make sure that attachment files are automatically moved to your your linked-files folder (which you designate in the plugin's settings). As you said, you can also use Zotero's right-click Add Attachment->Linked File). That just gets a bit tedious for lots of files.
https://www.zotero.org/support/preferences/advanced#files_and_folders