Upgrade StorageZotero 2.02 'The attached file could not be found'
I have recently upgraded to Zotero 2.02 on both my computers. One is running Windows Vista with office 2007, and the other is running XP with office 2003. Both have had Firefox 3.6 and now have 3.6.2, both also have the 3.0a3 Word plug in. I have two main problem:
The main problem is that whenever I try to open .pdf files or other extensions from files saved before upgrading to 2.02 then I get the 'The attached file could not be found' message'. I can select locate and find the file (in the storage folder) but when I select the located file the location window closes without further response. When I try to open the file again I get the same error message as if locating the file didn't make any difference. For .pdfs I can still go and open the file by manually finding it in the Zotero/storage/ABCDEFGH folder so I know the files are there. I do not have this problem with files that were downloaded after upgrading.
The second problem is to do with Word (2003 and 2007). It seems to be a random occurrence, but one of my documents gives me the 'Item 1 in this citation no longer exists in your Zotero database...' message when I try to add a new citation. If I replace the first citation then I get the same message for item 2 etc. The document so far has about 70 citations and the last time this happened I had to copy and paste data to an old backup document that was still good and then insert the recent citations manually. It is however the second time that I have had this particular problem with that document so I assume that it is not simply due to an issue with upgrading the code but maybe with the way in which the documents are saved? This time I replaced the first few citations by manually deleting and replacing them. After replacing the first few citations it seems like the rest of the document is fine.
RE data synchronisation: I use dropbox to sync my data which means that the entire Zotero folder and my documents are all located in the dropbox folder which constantly syncs with a server. I have used this system for quite a while though and did not have any problems with the previous versions of Zotero.
The main problem is that whenever I try to open .pdf files or other extensions from files saved before upgrading to 2.02 then I get the 'The attached file could not be found' message'. I can select locate and find the file (in the storage folder) but when I select the located file the location window closes without further response. When I try to open the file again I get the same error message as if locating the file didn't make any difference. For .pdfs I can still go and open the file by manually finding it in the Zotero/storage/ABCDEFGH folder so I know the files are there. I do not have this problem with files that were downloaded after upgrading.
The second problem is to do with Word (2003 and 2007). It seems to be a random occurrence, but one of my documents gives me the 'Item 1 in this citation no longer exists in your Zotero database...' message when I try to add a new citation. If I replace the first citation then I get the same message for item 2 etc. The document so far has about 70 citations and the last time this happened I had to copy and paste data to an old backup document that was still good and then insert the recent citations manually. It is however the second time that I have had this particular problem with that document so I assume that it is not simply due to an issue with upgrading the code but maybe with the way in which the documents are saved? This time I replaced the first few citations by manually deleting and replacing them. After replacing the first few citations it seems like the rest of the document is fine.
RE data synchronisation: I use dropbox to sync my data which means that the entire Zotero folder and my documents are all located in the dropbox folder which constantly syncs with a server. I have used this system for quite a while though and did not have any problems with the previous versions of Zotero.
Did you end up using the Zotero database wizard on only one computer, or did you end up using it on multiple computers? If the latter, you'd have lots of problems.
Assuming you have a backup of your 1.0 data directory, I'd recommend exporting any items changed since the upgrade (sorting by Date Added if necessary) to Zotero RDF, reverting to your backup data directory, reupgrading your database on that computer (and only that computer), making sure the attachments are fine, importing the RDF, and then, if you want to use Dropbox, letting the entire directory sync to the other computer. If that's actually working, you shouldn't need to upgrade on the other computer, and all your files should be accessible.
Links to citations in any documents you used since the upgrade would be lost, so if you have backups of those files you might want to use those as well.
I used the sync function within Zotero on one of the computers, but the problems started before that.
I've never made a manual backup, but I do have a library of old .sqlite files because the old copies get saved everytime it syncs new data. Maybe I can revert by renaming the current .sqlite file and loading an older one? If it's a good idea then I'll do it on one computer only and then sync with the second.
If I use Dropbox to sync my data, is is wise to also sync it with a Zotero server?
You need a pre-backup copy of your entire data directory, as recommended by the upgrade instructions, in order to restore properly and maintain links to your attachments. If you revert to a pre-2.0 database and upgrade again without a copy of your 1.0 'storage' directory, all of your attachments will be missing.
I can't really tell you what happened other than that it sounds like Dropbox made a mess of your data directory during the upgrade. If you're manually relocating attachments and find those files elsewhere within the 'storage' directory, you've got trouble.
Is the storage directory separate file which can be edited? I assume this means the attachment links are missing and will all have to be replaced? Any Idea why I can't do that through the locate function rather than manually looking up the files?
http://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data
I'm afraid I can't really help you beyond this, because this wasn't a Zotero issue, the upgrade instructions say to make a full backup, and your data directory is in a pretty messed-up state at this point. If you can restore to your 1.0 database and a version of the storage directory with numbered (instead of alphanumeric) folders, you can upgrade again from that.
If you try to fix this by locating files from within other folders in the storage directory, it'll probably just make things worse.