See update below
In my opinion, Zotero is the best reference manager out there.
- One-click capture of citation and full-text pdf’s
- Pdf’s automatically renamed, placed where you want them
- Easily organise your citation library with tags and collections
- Integrate Zotero with your word processor for one click bibliography generation
- View RSS feeds for your favourite journals or saved searches directly inside zotero
- Plus many minor features that add up to save you a heap of time.
I thought I would put together a quick guide for how to set up Zotero with Google Drive (or other similar cloud backup options). This way, you can sync as many documents as you want and access them on multiple devices easily. Just set up each of your devices as shown below. But just a heads up, with this method you won’t be able to sync files from group libraries, so if file syncing with groups is important to you I would suggest paying the small fee for a Zotero storage plan.
Update (June 2019): I’ve decided to switch back to regular Zotero because I want to support development by paying for a storage plan. I’ll now only use zotfile for renaming pdfs, but keep them in their default location, and use zotero’s built-in sync feature. This means I’ll be able to share files in groups (which is currently not supported with linked attachments such as those created by moving pdfs with zotfile). I’m leaving this guide here for those who are still keen to use an external cloud option for storing their attachments. Currently it is not possible to revert all your files back to their original location at once due to an issue with zotfile, so you can do it manually (as I’ve done) by:
1. Setting the zotfile preference back to “attach stored copy of file” then right click each entry and select ‘rename attachments.’
2. Ticking the file syncing options in Zotero ‘Sync’ preferences.
3. Reverting to absolute paths in the ‘Advanced – Files & Folders’ preferences.
Or you can wait for the zotero devs to make it possible to do this in batch which they are currently working on.
Update 2 (August 2019): The latest Zotero beta now includes an option to revert linked attachments back to stored attachments automatically, without the need to manually do this as I described above. See Dan Stillman’s comment on the Zotero forum here.
1. Install Zotero + Zotfile
Download and install Zotero and a ‘Zotero Connector’ for your browser. Then head over to Zotfile.com, right-click on the ‘Download’ link at the top, and select ‘Save Link As’ to save the Zotfile addon. Inside Zotero, click ‘Tools’ from the top menu, and then ‘Addons.’ Then click the gear icon in the top right corner and select ‘Install Addon From File.’ Select the Zotfile .xpi package that you saved earlier. From now on, Zotero will automatically update itself and Zotfile for you.
2. Install Google Drive
(or your preferred cloud sync app such as Dropbox)
Head over to Google Drive and download the ‘Backup & Sync’ app. Once installed, click the cloud icon in your system tray, then click the three dots in the top right of the pane that opens, and select ‘Preferences.’ On the Google Drive tab, select where you want your Google Drive folder to be on your PC. If you have multiple hard drives put it on the one you use for data/media/storage. so for example you might have something like C:\Users\Tom\Google Drive\. Add a new folder to Google Drive called something like \Zotero.
3. Configure Zotero
Open Zotero and select ‘Edit’ from the top menu, then ‘Preferences’ and make sure the settings from sections marked with a red dot below match yours (other settings are optional):
The snapshot option is optional. I recommend preventing the automatic tagging feature, and instead using your own keywording system.
‘Sync full-text content’ relates to text indexed within your pdf’s, so it might be a good idea to tick that to make sure searching works properly across your devices.
By indexing your Zotero pdf’s you can build a searchable database from all of your documents. Searching text in the Zotero search bar will then be matched inside documents.
Select the folder you created in google drive – something like ‘C:\Users\Tom\Google Drive\Zotero’
NOTE: Do not touch your ‘Data Directory Location’ pictured in the lower half of the above screenshot.
4. Configure Zotfile
From the ‘Tools’ menu again, select ‘Zotfile Preferences’ and ensure your settings match the following:
Enter the same folder here. If you want to use the ‘subfolder defined by’ option you can – just click the zotfile website link for details. Although subfolders are generally not needed because you will never have to use the filesystem to find pdf’s, you can open through zotero.
Max title length helps to ensure your filenames don’t exceed the maximum in Windows.
You’re all set! Now whenever you save citations with the ‘Save to Zotero’ button in your browser, the pdf’s will be placed in your google drive folder and backed up.
There is an extra step if you’re dragging and dropping the pdf’s in to Zotero: Once Zotero has finished looking up the metadata and creating new citation entries for the pdf’s, simply select all of the items you’ve just added and right click, select ‘Manage attachments,’ then select ‘Rename attachments.’ This allows Zotero to hand things over to Zotfile so it can apply the settings you’ve specified above (by renaming and moving the pdf’s to the desired location). You don’t need to do this for items you save from your browser.
As long as you keep these settings the same on your devices they should sync properly and work together nicely due to the ‘relative paths’ feature. I have this set up on my home PC and institutional PC so I can access my zotero library and pdf’s from both locations (and any changes in terms of saving new items, or deleting other items, will carry across both devices).
This setup is very risky and extremely likely to lead to corruption and data loss. You should not place the Zotero data directory in Google Drive or any other cloud storage folder. It’s fine to put the Zotfile folder for PDFs in Google Drive, but it’s not safe to put the Zotero database itself in a syncing folder.
See here for more details: https://www.zotero.org/support/sync#alternative_syncing_solutions
Hi! My guide does not suggest to put the Zotero data directory in Google Drive, just the Zotfile folder for pdf’s as you’ve stated. Where specifically is the issue?
My mistake, sorry. I misread your screenshot of the Advanced pane and thought you were directing folks to place the data directory, not the “base directory” in Google Drive. Maybe make that clearer?
My mistake, sorry. I misread your screenshot of the Advanced pane and thought you were directing folks to place the data directory, not the linked files “base directory” in Google Drive. Maybe make it clearer which field you are referring to and to not touch the other one? I worry that other readers might make the same misreading I did.
All good – I’ve added a note under that particular screenshot. And thanks for your contributions to Zotero! I’ve just started using your DOI-manager plugin and love it. Thanks.
FYI, the Zotero Preferences are accessed through the Edit header drop-down, not the Tools menu (Step 3). Tools contains only the ZotFile Preferences. But otherwise, very clear and helpful – thank you!
Thanks for letting me know and glad you found it useful!
Works great, thank you!
Great to hear, thanks for letting me know David.
Hi,
I’m having some trouble with your method. In particular, Zotero isn’t placing anything in the folder that is supposed to be backed up to Google Drive. I have followed the instructions as written, but nothing shows up in that folder when I add new files to Zotero.
Thanks!
Hi Dan,
I think I know what the issue is (and its my fault). When you say adding files do you mean you are dragging and dropping pdf’s into Zotero or you’re saving items from webpages?
If the first, Zotero should automatically lookup the metadata for the item and create a citation for it in your library. However, you then need to right click the new citation, select ‘Manage Attachments’, and then select ‘Rename Attachments.’ Zotfile will then take over and apply the settings you’ve specified (including moving the pdf to your chosen location in Google Drive). If you’ve added a whole bunch of pdf’s already you can just select everything in your zotero library and do the same thing (right click and select ‘Manage Attachments’, and then select ‘Rename Attachments’). It might take a while if there are lots to do. I forgot about this because I add the vast majority of my items through the ‘Save to Zotero’ button in the browser, but thanks for pointing this out. I’ll make a note in the post.
Does that solve it?
Hi! I’m having some trouble with file syncing on two PCs. First, I have this set up on my school PC and that works. Then I keep these settings the same on my home PC, but pdfs can not sync on my home PC. How can I access pdfs from both locations?
Thanks!
Hi Ray,
When you save an item on your school PC, Are the pdf files being moved to your folder inside the Google Drive folder? You can check this by right clicking on a citation in zotero and selecting ‘Show file.’
Hi Ray,
Any luck fixing this issue yet? I’m still keen to help if I can.
Cheers
Hi Tom,
Thanks for the tutorial. I have the same problem as Ray’s. I set up Zotero and ZotFile on both my school PC and home PC following the tutorial. Both the PC’s can save pdf files to the same Google Drive folder. The problem is that the paper associated with the pdf file saved by the school PC is not ‘synced’ with the home PC. For example, the school PC saved paper1.pdf to the GDrive folder; however, on my home PC, Zotero does not automatically add paper1 (it’s pdf link and metadata). Are there any additional steps needed to let the home PC automatically add the paper that the school PC saved?
Thank for your help.
Hi Allen,
How are you saving items? I replied to Ray:
If this doesn’t work let me know and I can help you to troubleshoot further.
Cheers,
Tom
Hi Allen,
Did you manage to fix this?
I’m seeing the same problem that Allen and Ray are reporting. I also use the Zotero Connector in Google Chrome. Dragging and dropping the files into Zotero can be a hassle as it appears to literally drop them into whatever highlighted field you have selected (solution is to make sure you drop it into My Library or a collection).
Anyway, I’ve attempted to keep these files synced across two computers: 1 PC and 1 Mac. My PC is out for repair, and I opened up my Mac to find that all my Zotero artifacts are there, but none of the PDF’s. Most of which I can find in my Google Drive. One reason that I might have a lot of dead links in my Mac Zotero is that I left the “Sync attachment files in My Library using ” set to ON in my PC settings. So I have turned it off on my Mac, and am still having issues.
I’m going through all my files to get them in order, and I’ve used two methods to get the PDF in the right place:
1. Zotero Connector in Chrome
2. Copy the PDF from an old directory (sometimes the Zotero directory) into the Google Drive. Attempt to open a dead PDF in Zotero, use the “Locate” button to target the PDF in the Google Drive.
In both instances, the PDF gets copied to the Zotero directory.
During this time, I’ve had to use the “rename” feature plenty of times, and it seems to rename the file in-place; that is, it doesn’t appear to move it to the Google Drive.
The directory structure of the Google Drive is slightly different in both Mac and PC.
Sorry, left that last comment dangling: “The directory structure of the Google Drive is slightly different in both Mac and PC.” That is, the directory names are not the same, so the actual structure is different between the computers, but they still target the same folder within the Google Drive.
Hi Mike,
Yes I should have explained in the guide – when I drag and drop I make sure to drop the pdf between two items. This is achieved by dropping the pdf once you see a blue line appear between zotero items. But yes you can also drag and drop to a collection or library if preferred.
Regarding your main issue:
As long as the folder you’ve entered into the relative path section is the same it shouldn’t matter. I don’t use a Mac but I know Zotfile definitely works between PC & Mac so this shouldn’t cause any problems.
The biggest red flag for me is the fact the pdf is not being moved even when you use the Zotfile rename feature. Are you sure you have entered the right settings to match my screenshots?
Try this just to troubleshoot: Go to a publisher page and save an item from inside the web browser. Right click and show file – where is it located?
I’ve verified my settings, checked on a new pdf, and tried to download a pdf already in my Zotero (imported from prior bibliography tool). And I think the problem is that new files from the Zotero Connector go to the Google Drive, but files already within Zotero are duplicated to the user/Zotero directory instead.
My Zotero settings differ in that:
-General-
“Font Size” = Small (just changed to Medium after this review)
“Automatically take snapshots when creating items from web pages” = ON
My ZotFile Preferences differ:
-Renaming Rules-
“Delimiter between multiple authors” = ‘_’
“Change to lower case” = ON
“Replace blanks” = ON
-Advanced Settings-
“Use Actual article/book chapter page for highlighted text snippets”
And I want to enable “Remove special characters (diacritics) from filename” as well.
But I suspect these are all renaming rules…they wouldn’t affect file storage.
I have a lot of pdf’s and notes from a previous bibliography tool and I’m trying to sort those into various connections (in addition to my latest research effort). As I go through old pdf’s, I will download them anew to get the abstract record from online sources. When I download these pdf’s that I already have, Zotero will create a duplicate copy.
So I suspect I’m missing old pdf files lost in the transfer from PC to Mac (that setting to let Zotero sync attached files). But I’m disappointed that “rename from metadata” isn’t copying my files out of the Zotero directory and into the Google Drive location.
I’ll also add that dragging and dropping my MS Word documents (full of my notes) onto the highlighted items in Zotero results in their import to the Zotero directory as well. I’d rather these end up in the Google Drive.
Hi Mike,
You can allow this from the advanced pane of Zotfile’s settings – “Only work with the following filetypes” – if doc/x is there it should work, but I don’t use this feature myself so I’m not sure how it would handle file naming. I suspect it will name them the same filename (which is fine because their extensions differ) but I’m not sure what would happen if you had two or more of the same filetype (unless Zotfile adds a number on the end when batch renaming multiple files of the same filetype). Not sure how this works.
Hi Mike,
Sorry for the difficulties you’re having here – I’m really keen to try to get this resolved for you.
I agree those settings shouldn’t make a difference for our purposes.
The pdfs you already have – where are these existing copies stored, in the Zotero storage folder or on Google drive? When you downlaod the new copy of pdfs you already have, are you using the Save to Zotero button in Chrome? The duplicate copy, where is that going?
I’ll describe an option we could look at if you wanted to ‘start fresh’ with a clean Zotero install. Personally this would be my preferred method if we were talking about my library:
1. Move all your pdfs to a new folder – this can be achieved in one go by searching for the .pdf extension in your google drive folder and your zotero storage folder.
2. Uninstall all traces of Zotero/Zotfile, remove profile folder etc.
3. Reinstall Zotero and Zotfile, link to google drive.
4. Create a new Collection in Zotero, drag and drop all your pdf’s in, wait for most to have their citation added automatically.
5. For automatically created ones, right click – manage attachments – rename attachments (if this needs to be done, i.e if Zotfile has not already moved them to google drive)
6. Go through and add citations for files which dont have a citation added automatically (via DOI, via copying from your existing Zotero collection etc)
This would also have the benefit of removing orphaned pdf files during the migration. I understand if you’re hesitant though!
Hi Mike,
Just checking: Did you get a chance to troubleshoot this? I’m interested to know if you managed to fix it.
Cheers
Tom
Tom, thanks for the tutorial. I use multiple desktops/laptops and it’s working like a charm! Just one question: any idea on how to sync attached files that are stored in each computer to my gdrive folder?
Hi Flavio, syncing attached pdf files to your gdrive folder is exactly what should be happening if you follow the tutorial. Do you mean files other than pdf’s? For that you need to make sure these file types are entered into the box in the advanced options pane in the Zotfile options.
Hi Tom,
Thanks for the tutorial, but I couldn’t get it to work for syncing my Google Drive to the Zotero. Maybe I misunderstood your instruction.
I followed your steps, but when I added new citation to Zotero, it was synced to my Zotero online library, but not to my Google Drive. I thought it should sync at the same time?
Appreciate your help in advance.
Thanks,
Aung
Hi Aung,
When you add a new item you should see the google drive icon in the system tray start to sync a few seconds later. Where is the pdf going? If you right click on the item in Zotero and select ‘show file’ we should be able to work out what is happening.
Cheers
Tom
Hi Tom,
Sorry for late reply. When I added a new item to Zotero, it was saved in the local Zotero folder, but some PDF (total 3) were sync to Google Drive. I wasn’t sure why it only synced some but not all. I will email you my setup, maybe you can spot where I did wrong.
Hi Tom, I have one more question: Zotfile is working fine. However, I just realized that when I delete the referente in Zotero stand alone, the pdf file is not deleted from my Gdrive folder. Any tips on how to procede in this situation? Best
Hi Flavio,
I usually don’t delete many references, but when I do, I just right click the item first and select show file, then delete the pdf. Then I delete the reference in zotero. There isn’t an official way to do this automatically, but there is a perl script uploaded by a user: https://github.com/mronkko/ZoteroCleanOrphans
There is also a python script to do the same: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/215096/#Comment_215096
I’ve also posted a solution to this before using zotfile if you want to remove a large number of files at once: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/265490/#Comment_265490
Hope that helps! It’s worth noting I’m actually looking to revert my setup back to the pre-zotfile state and only use zotfile for renaming files, but keep them in the default folder. This is because I want to support zotero development by paying for and using storage (plus it means groups can share files, as this is currently not possible with linked attachments). Let me know how it goes.
Cheers
Tom
Hello Tom, I’m Miguel, from Spain. I’m so grateful for your work, found it very useful specially for me, in University of Extremadura, where we have academic Google Drive license and work with Google Drive File Stream.
I just need to solve a question. I actually sync my personal library attachments with the desired folder, but I can’t do the same with Group Libraries. I just unchecked the option: “Sync attachment files in group libraries using Zotero storage” in Preferences\Sync\Settings; but it seems to be not enough.
Should I configure anything else?
Thank you so much for yyour attention.
Hi Miguel,
Thanks so much, glad you found it useful!
Unfortunately this method does not work with groups because Zotero groups don’t support linked attachments (which are what we’re creating with this Zotfile method). This is one of the reasons I reverted back to the default sync method so now I just pay for storage. I added an update at the start of the post explaining this recently, but I’ve now added an extra note in the first paragraph too. I would suggest paying for storage if you’re needing to use groups. Sorry for the confusion and hopefully this helps.
Hello!
Thank you for this helpful tutorial! It works like a charm. I currently have my entire library synced to my GDrive (academic license with unlimited room), but am wondering if there is any way to preserve the folder/subfolder organization from Zotero in GDrive? I’m old-school and still have a ‘To-read’ folder that I’d like to be able to identify, and other folders for individual projects would also be useful to see
I’m also not entirely sure what you are referring to when you mention Zotero’s built-in sync function. I haven’t found an easy way to access my Zotero library on my Mac and on my iPad. I’m guessing the built-in sync refers strictly to desktop-to-desktop syncing?
Thanks so much!
Thanks Susana, glad you liked it!
Regarding folder structure, I think it might be possible to achieve what you’re wanting with Zotfile by using the collections wildcard (%c) in the renaming rules (see here: http://zotfile.com/#wildcards). I’ve never tried this but it should work, at least for the first folder/collection level, and maybe you can string a few together? You could also try tagging items with their ‘status’ – this is what I do, although I understand the appeal of using collections for this.
Zoteros built in sync function is detailed here: https://www.zotero.org/support/sync
You should definitely be able to access your library on those devices – you just install Zotero and sign in to your account and hit sync. Remember if you’re using the steps from this guide your files won’t sync with the built in Zotero sync, only the citations will. I switched back to syncing everything with Zotero (and paying the fee for file storage) just because its bit simpler and it means I can easily share pdfs with groups, which currently isn’t possible with the ‘linked attachment’ approach outlined in this guide.
Hope this helps!
This is a great guide to the setup. Thanks. Just curious, why do we turn off the ‘Sync attachment files in my Library’ option? Presumably this is a feature we no longer need if we are putting our attachments on the cloud folder.
Thanks Bill, glad you liked it. Yes thats correct: That option is for when you want to use the built-in Zotero cloud storage (free up to 300MB) which is unnecessary if using GDrive.