Zotero no longer automatically retrieves metadata when adding PDFs

Schillo · 2026-10-21T14:46:13+00:00

Hi, everyone. I mean, “back in the day,” when you inserted PDF files, the metadata would be automatically extracted and inserted accordingly. In my current version of Zotero, “10.0.6 (64-bit),” on Windows 11, that no longer happens. Instead, I now have to open the entry’s context menu and select the “Retrieve Metadata” option. Am I missing something or doing something wrong? The old drag-and-drop feature was really convenient, and if it’s still available, I won’t have to adjust my study materials ;-)

adamsmith · 2026-10-21T14:55:18+00:00

That generally still works -- either Zotero didn't find anything for the PDF in question, or you did this during this morning's server downtime -- I don't know if Zotero took that part of its services offline, but I'd guess so. So first thing would be to try again now. If that doesn't work we'd need a link to the PDF to say more.