Attachments not found

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Hogenson
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Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2014 12:07 pm

Attachments not found

Post by Hogenson »

I have been ignoring this issue for a while but I need to fix it. Fairly frequently I will load a series of documents through the Bookends Watch and when I go to autocomplete them I get a message that the document cannot be found. The listing is there, at the top of the list of references. Here is an example: "Attached file “Bellah_Post-review_NU_061_02-03_281-300.pdf”. Reference metadata not found online." But in the attachment window it says "Can't find file 252.dpf" and the field is blank. This also seems to happen from time to time with files I have fully loaded. I have not tracked this systematically, but I do not autocomplete files that have this problem at the start, but there are quite a number of instances where I will go looking for a pdf and encounter the same "cannot find" message, even though the full bibliographical entry is present in the data field. I have on occasion been able to find the pdf in the Bookends file in iCloud and reattach, but that is less than optimal, versus having the file there in the first place, and having it remain in place going forward. Thoughts welcome.
Jon
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Re: Attachments not found

Post by Jon »

I don't know what's going on. But the file name stored in Bookends is 252.dpf. Open the attachment inspector with that reference selected and you'll see what is attached. I'd Rebuild your library. And if you can find steps to reproduce this get in touch with tech support.

Jon
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Hogenson
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Re: Attachments not found

Post by Hogenson »

Thanks, Jon, I am working on building a file of attachments outside Bookends so I can cross reference. Will see what happens.


George
Deckerd
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Re: Attachments not found

Post by Deckerd »

Is there any way to create a smart group to include all of these "can't find" files? I am experiencing the same issue and, like the OP, I can reattach when teaching for them in my iCloud account. Having all of these files in one group would at least make this process a little quicker, but I am not sure if there are parameters that could create such a group.

Thanks.
Jon
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Re: Attachments not found

Post by Jon »

You can in a two-step process.

1. Right-click -> Select references with orphaned attachments
2. Make a static group from the selected references (drag and drop one into the groups pane and Bookends will offer to place them in a new group).

Note that the first step might take a few minutes if you have many thousands of attachments (Bookends has to validate each, one at a time).

Jon
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Deckerd
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Re: Attachments not found

Post by Deckerd »

I hope this is not straying from the original intent of this thread, but I need to revisit this:

The message "Can't find file "xxxx-xxxx.pdf" appears to be related to the "Optimizing Mac Storage" option on Mac's OS. When you choose to "optimize Mac storage", your Mac (somewhat) indiscriminately decides which files to delete locally and store in iCloud while keeping other files stored locally. This is not a huge deal in itself if the files are directly accessible in the Finder; you simply double click on the file, and it downloads without a hitch.

However, when using a program like Bookends, it takes several steps to "re-download" the file. For example, if I locate a title in Bookends, it is often a labeled "Can't find file "xxxx-xxxx.pdf". Presumably this is a file that Apple has decided to delete locally and store in iCloud in order to manage space on my Mac. To re-download this particular file, I need to manually type in the file name in the Finder. Unfortunately, These file names are often long strings of letters and numbers. Once I do locate the file in the Finder, I double click on it, and it is available to read. Whether or not this specific file remains on the hard drive locally over the next day(s)/week(s) I guess depends on Apple's decision to leave it or move it.

I am trying to figure out a way to speed up this process as I need to run "Optimizing Mac Storage" for storage reasons.

As far as I know, unlike with Finder, there is no way to directly access these files in Bookends (i.e., those that have been removed locally and stored in iCloud). That is, you can't double click on the file name, and expect if to simply download from iCloud. Also, the only place I can locate the file name is through the Attachment Window. But in this window, I can't simply select and copy the name of the file....again these "Can't find" files are usually long strings of letters and numbers, so I have to go the Finder and enter these numbers manually, which takes quite a bit of time.

Ultimately, my questions are: is there any work around for a Mac that has "Optimizing Mac Storage" enabled like a single click somewhere directly in the Bookends app? If not, is there a way to copy and paste the filename (if not in the Attachment Window, then somewhere else)? That way at least I could paste the name of the file into the Finder rather than type it out.

Sorry of the long-winded post. Any help is always appreciated.

Thanks,

Tim
Jon
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Re: Attachments not found

Post by Jon »

I don't think Bookends can force iCloud Drive to download a file that's stored in the cloud. But you can copy the attachment name by selecting it in the Attachment Inspector (the full pathname will be copied, too, if the file is the local storage).

Jon
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DrJJWMac
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Re: Attachments not found

Post by DrJJWMac »

Have you considered moving your database and/or other storage-intensive file sets to an external storage?


JJW
--
JJW
kga1978
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Re: Attachments not found

Post by kga1978 »

I have started getting this error after updating to Catalina. Any idea if this is caused by "Optimized File Storage" (which I think is turned off), or is this a known issue on Catalina? My attachments are showing fine in the attachment browser, inspector, etc., but when I try to open the PDF from within Bookends I get an error that the attachment doesn't exist (even though it does).
Jon
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Re: Attachments not found

Post by Jon »

This is due to changes in Catalina AppleScript. It's fixed in the next Bookends update. For now, go to Bookends Preferences and, in the first tab, setyour default PDF viewer to Finder Default.

Jon
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perplexed
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Re: Attachments not found

Post by perplexed »

I have a related issue and so thought I'd post here rather than create a separate thread. I've found my desktop was downloading attachments correctly from iCloud but was not uploading them. For whatever reason, the "Attachments folder" in Preferences was not showing as "iCloud Folder for iOS Sync" (perhaps I accidentally changed it at some point?) and so I switched it back.

As a result, there is a gap of about a month where the PDFs are present (locally) on my desktop, but were not being uploaded to iCloud and so don't appear on iOS devices, etc. I've tried manually instigating a sync, but I think Bookends looks for recent changes.

Is there a way of getting Bookends to upload the month's worth of local attachments to iCloud, without manually re-attaching the already existing PDFs (which includes Supporting Information which would be missed if automatically finding the PDFs on publisher sites), one-by-one?

Thanks in advance.
Jon
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Re: Attachments not found

Post by Jon »

If you have attachments that are outside the default folder and want to move them to it, use Global Change -> Consolidate Attachments.

Read up on this in the user guide (Help menu).

Jon
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perplexed
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Re: Attachments not found

Post by perplexed »

Aha! p. 376 of the User Guide, under Global Changes. So it's not under a sync option, got it now. Thanks!

When I look at this, the default in the drop down menu is "Documents," which seems different from the User Guide, but then underneath there are (indented) options for a couple of sub-folders for the correct iCloud directory. To be safe, I'm leaning towards clicking on "Browse..." and then selecting the Bookends attachments directory in iCloud (the default which comes up). I'll give this a go when in front of my desktop at work on Monday.

Thanks again for your help and your quick response.
Jon
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Re: Attachments not found

Post by Jon »

If you're using the iOS sync folder for PDFs then the top level attachment folder is Documents.

/Users/yourname/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~com~sonnysoftware~bot/Documents

That's where I'd move them, not a subfolder.

Do this with just one reference/PDF first, to make sure it works as you intend.

Jon
Sonny Software
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