Unable to open PDFs from Zotero (File not found)

mailmarcus
Hi there,
I'm a big fan of Zotero and have already made several people switch from Endnote. Great tool!

However, I'm having problems with opening several attached PDF files although Zotero shows me the correct folder where the PDF is located (Locate file). See screenshot: http://img812.imageshack.us/i/screen1gm.png/

But upon opening the file (View Snapshot), my Foxit PDF Reader opens up but with the following error message: Could not open file, File not found.
http://img145.imageshack.us/i/screen2nd.png/

This is not the only example of such an error with PDFs attached to my citations. I checked my database integrity and that says everything is alright. Also removing the file from the library and then re-attaching it to the references is not solving the issue.

Sorry for not describing the problem more accurately. Maybe you have any suggestion what can help solving this issue. Thanks in advance and thanks again for your great work,
Marcus
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    That's a problem with Foxit (or Windows), not Zotero. Zotero just launches the file. It shouldn't be any different from double-clicking the file from outside Firefox.

    But it might be due to extended characters (the dashes?) in the filename.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    Well, two of those are just hyphens that Zotero puts in, which wouldn't be a problem. The other one might be an en dash from the title.
  • ajlyon
    edited March 17, 2011
    Foxit has problems with extended characters. I used a different program-- can't remember what it was called-- for PDFs back when I was using WIndows, just for this reason.
  • adamsmith
    I recommend pdfXchange for windows users - it's not quite as fast as FoxIt, but very well designed and feature-rich. It seems to be a common choice among those without access to adobe pro.
  • mailmarcus
    edited March 17, 2011
    Thanks for the quick replys.

    First, no crazy dashes in the file.

    I installed PDF-Xchange Viewer and set it in Firefox to be the default application for PDFs. Double clicking on the entry still opened only Foxit Reader. After restarting Firefox I double clicked on the entry and then the PDF opened properly in PDF-XChange viewer.
    Just out of curiousity I set everything for PDFs in Firefox to Foxit Reader. Again this only opened the reader but no PDF.
    Switching all Firefox PDF applications back to PDF-Xchange Viewer and restarting firefox (multiple times now) does lead to the same result of only opening the viewer but not the file. Maybe rebooting will help... but it looks like a crazy Windows thing?!
    Cheers,
    Marcus
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    The Firefox setting doesn't matter. It's your OS setting. It should be whatever you get when you double-click the file from the OS.

    Also, how do you know it's not an en dash? Did you rename the file with a hyphen, relink it from Zotero, and try again?
  • mailmarcus
    edited March 17, 2011
    Well, I removed all dashes from the file, than located the changed file name version in Zotero and it gave the same: opening the reader but no file. Also the default OS reader is PDF-Xchange Viewer opens properly with PDFs in folders.

    Then I removed the Greek alpha from the file it now it opens flawlessly. I used the auto-rename attachment function of Zotero to change the file name.
    Looks like I should from now on remove such special characters from the citation.

    I'm going to look out for this with my other citations that gave the same error. Cheers,
    Marcus

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