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How to import PDFs from Zotero

The Zotero import is a round trip for collecting full texts: export your PDF-less references out of Littview, let Zotero find and hold the PDFs, then bring the whole folder back — each PDF lands on the reference it belongs to. Note what this flow is for: it attaches PDFs to references you’ve already imported — it doesn’t create references.

You’ll find it in the project sidebar under Sources → PDF sources, on the Zotero Import tab (Owner and Assistants only).

The Zotero PDF Import tab with the Export References Without PDFs button, the export-folder upload area, and the match results panel

Round trip through Zotero

Section titled “Round trip through Zotero”

  1. Click Export References Without PDFs. This downloads a .bib file of every reference still missing a full text — with the Final Pool toggle on, only the papers that passed screening.

  2. In Zotero, go to File → Import and select the file. Now collect the PDFs there: select the items and use Find Available PDF, or drag files you already have onto each item.

  3. Export back out: select the references in Zotero, right-click → Export Items…, choose BibTeX format, and check Export Files. Zotero writes a .bib file plus a files/ subfolder holding the PDFs.

  4. Back in Littview, drop that entire exported folder onto the upload area — the .bib and the files/ folder together (on Chrome or Edge you can use Select Folder).

  5. Click Process & Match Files. Each PDF is paired to its reference automatically, with a badge on every match showing how it was made.

  6. Review the matches in the Reference-PDF Matches panel, link any file that didn’t pair automatically, then click Upload PDFs to References.

The Reference-PDF Matches panel after Process & Match Files, with five matched references, one unmatched, and the Upload 5 PDFs to References button

When the upload completes, the PDFs are attached and the Attach PDFs tab’s coverage counts reflect them; Start New Import resets the tab for another round.

Limits and gotchas

Section titled “Limits and gotchas”
  • Export from Zotero in BibTeX specifically — not RIS or CSV; the round trip depends on it.
  • Individual PDFs must be under 10 MB; oversized files are skipped and listed in a warning so you know exactly which ones.
  • Up to 1,000 files per import — split a bigger collection into rounds.
  • Always start from the Littview export rather than an existing Zotero collection.

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