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Roberto Scotti
Asked: 2020-01-07 14:26:46 +0800 CST

Error opening directory in Zotero: Permission denied

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I am stuck with a (probably) silly problem: modifying preferences in Zotero-standalone! I would like Zotero standalone in Ubuntu to point to the Zotero data in the Windows partition. directory permission The 'Windows data partition' is mounted on a folder of mine. So far Zotero replies that permission to access the directory is denied.

What can I test or correct? 

rs@rs-XPS-12-9250:~$ lsblk -o name,partlabel,fstype,mountpoint,UUID
NAME   PARTLABEL                    FSTYPE   MOUNTPOINT                     UUID
loop0                               squashfs /snap/core/8268                
loop1                               squashfs /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/110      
loop2                               squashfs /snap/chromium/971             
loop3                               squashfs /snap/gnome-calculator/406     
loop4                               squashfs /snap/gnome-characters/296     
loop5                               squashfs /snap/gtk-common-themes/1353   
loop6                               squashfs /snap/gnome-logs/61            
loop7                               squashfs /snap/gnome-characters/375     
loop8                               squashfs /snap/gnome-calculator/544     
loop9                               squashfs /snap/canonical-livepatch/90   
loop10                              squashfs /snap/core18/1288              
loop11                              squashfs /snap/gnome-logs/81            
loop12                              squashfs /snap/gnome-system-monitor/100 
loop13                              squashfs /snap/libreoffice/163          
loop14                              squashfs /snap/core/7270                
loop15                              squashfs /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/67       
loop16                              squashfs /snap/zotero-snap/4            
loop17                              squashfs /snap/gtk-common-themes/1313   
loop18                              squashfs /snap/gnome-system-monitor/123 
loop19                              squashfs /snap/core18/1066              
sda                                                                         
├─sda1 Basic data partition         ntfs                                    0A9A78FF9A78E899
├─sda2 EFI system partition         vfat     /boot/efi                      9C79-CF74
├─sda3 Microsoft reserved partition                                         
├─sda4 Basic data partition         ntfs     /media/MSW10                   A44E81644E812FDA
├─sda5                              ntfs                                    963A9C573A9C3669
└─sda6                              ext4     /                              2bd5e8dc-7bce-460d-9a54-384a443d97d8
permissions files zotero

2 Answers

  1. To access data stored on a mounted NTFS partition on Ubuntu in Zotero:

    1. Open Ubuntu Software app and find zotero-snap
    2. Click on Permissions
    3. Toggle "Read/write files on removable storage devices" to on
    4. Close and reopen Zotero

    Note: The partition is mounted with these permissions/options: ntfs auto,user,rw 0 0

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  2. OK. You've answered my questions. The point about labeling partitions is that you can see at a glance what partition contains what information. In your example you have 2 NTFS drives both labelled with the same description - Basic data partition, which is confusing. What I suggest is that you label sda4, Win10. Then you know it's your C:\ drive. If sda1 is a recovery drive, label that as WinRec or similar. If you look here you can see I've used proper labels for each partition, not the default ones, so I can see quickly what they all represent.

    You can also see that my sda4 is my data partition where all data files and folders are shared between Ubuntu and Windows. I keep all data separately from the system partitions, so that a) If I ever need to reinstall Windows the data isn't affected. b) I now can reference the data partition directly from Ubuntu without the need to load my Windows system as well. c) I now mount sda4 at boot-up so that no permission problems arise as I can now make my own permissions in the /etc/fstab file.

    To return to your original question I would suggest you do similar, ie make a new partition, format it NTFS, label it 'Data' and move all data folders and files (not just Zotero) from your C:\ drive to the new partition. Once you've done that I'll tell you how to proceed from there.

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