Attached files disappearing: "The attached file could not be found. "

mronkko
We have a group library with 10+ people and occasionally encounter attached files disappearing from Zotero. The attachement item is listed in the items pane, but an attempt to open it results in an error message

"The attached file could not be found.

It may have been moved or deleted outside of Zotero"

I did go through the documentation at http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/files_not_syncing, but this did not help.

One example of these items with disappearing attachments is
https://www.zotero.org/groups/6184/items/ZAUZ9F5F

This particular file was added by my colleague in last september to a group library where the files are stored at Zotero server. The web page shows that I modified it in January, even though I have never knowingly edited the item. I went through my backups, but the couple of backups between january and september that I checked did not contain the folder ZAUZ9F5F under Zotero storage.

There are no version changes involved and everyone stores their files under the zotero data directory.

Any ideas what might be wrong?
  • mronkko
    We checked and these files exists on the computer on which the items were created. However, for some reason they do not seem to sync.
  • ajlyon
    Perhaps you could create debug output for a sync attempt on the computer where they do reside? Maybe there's some access error happening (although I think that would trigger an error of some sort that Zotero would tell you about).

    And these are not linked items?
  • dstillman
    We checked and these files exists on the computer on which the items were created.
    Right. That file doesn't exist on the server, so it wasn't ever uploaded from the original computer.

    I can't tell you why unless you can reproduce it, but a Reset File Sync History from the Sync->Reset pane of the Zotero prefs will cause Zotero to upload any files it hasn't yet uploaded. (It won't reupload anything already on the server.)
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