Use Google Drive to Store PDFs with Zotero in 3 Steps
Did you know that Zotero Cloud provides you only 300MB for the free plan?
Did you know that you can use your Google Drive storage to store PDF files to save your limited 300MB?
Well, answer to the first question is yes and the answer to the second question is also “yes” if you happen to have a Google account which is using G-Suite.
This is written assuming that you have already installed Zotero application on your device, installed the Zotero browser extension and have setup a Zotero profile.
Step 1: Download Drive File Stream
Go to Google drive and log in with your G-Suite account. Click the gear icon on top right corner and you will see the option to download Drive File Stream which is suited for your operating system by default. Once installed (in Windows OS) it will look like in the image below.
Once this is setup, go in to Google Drive File Stream->My Drive and create a new folder named “Zotero”.
Step 2: Install Zotfile
Zotfile is a free plugin which helps you move your PDFs to Google Drive. You can download the Zotfile extension for Zotero here.
Once .xpi file is downloaded,
1. Open Zotero application.
2. Go to Tools -> Add-ons
3. Click the “gear icon” on top right corner.
4. Click “Install Add-on From File” and install the add-on through the previously downloaded .xpi file.
Once you do that, Zotfile will be installed successfully.
What exactly is going to happen here is,
1. The bibliographic information will go to Zotero server.
2. The PDF attachments which will use a lot of space will get stored in Google drive.
Step 3: Setup Zotero and Zotfile preferences
- Go to Edit -> Preferences -> Sync in Zotero and untick “Sync full-text content” box since you don’t want your PDFs to go to Zotero cloud anymore.
(You have to log in with your account if you haven’t done so already)
2. Go to Tools -> Zotfile Preferences in Zotero.
First, under “Source Folder for Attaching New Files”, you have to include the source folder root path where Zotero saves newly downloaded files in local storage.
In my case it is: C:\Users\Hasal\Zotero\storage
Then under “Location of Files”, you have to include the path the location in Google Drive where you want Zotfile to save your files.
It will be something like: G:\My Drive\Zotero
Congratulations! You are all set to save your PDFs in Google Drive. Save a research paper and see Zotfile saving it in the specified directory of your Google Drive. Now you can do all your changes in the Zotfile linked PDF and all of it will be backed up and synced with Google Drive.
