I recently upgraded to X6 for Mac and enjoyed syncing .pdf files to my iPad for reading and annotating, I even found syncing files with DropBox then updating my desktop library to be functional. However, recently my library has passed the 5GB limit for my Endnote Web account, now I cannot sync new references to my iPad. This results in a significant limitation, as it is the new references that I most want to read.
I realize that I must be an outlier with my library size, but increasing the file limit to 10GB would be very helpful. This is also inline with size limits offered by other online reference managers.
Me too: I’ve reached the upper limit and have had to shut off the syncing ability just to be able to work without being constantly nagged about my limits.
Agree on need for an option to increase web storage. Up to last week, I had maxed out my 5 GB limit with about 5,000 PDF files. (I am constantly impressed that Endnote never loses or garbles any of my PDFs as the database is growing.). As I will describe below, there is a workaround to shrink your database by removing the largest of your PDFs, but it is risky and a huge waste of time. We need to be able to buy more on-line space.
As a workaround, I found a $40 program on the Internet that sorts Windows files and also sorts files within folders. I made a copy of my Endnote PDF folder to protect the original and pasted it in a new location. Then, I used the sorting program to sequence by size all 5,000 PDFs (which Endnote keeps individually stored inside separate folders). The program showed that 150 of the PDFs were using 1.5 GB of storage space, which I think is predicted by some statistical law. With help from the sorting program, I moved the 150 “big” PDFs into a new folder. Then, I used Endnote to import the PDFs into a new Endnote Library, so I would still have access to them. After some more copying and syncing, I got the 150 PDFs removed from my main Endnote PDF database in Windows and on the Web. So, now I have an active Endnote Library with a size of 3.5 GB and a separate Library with just the 150 big PDFs. This workaround is not pretty and could corrupt your PDFs if you miss a step. I wrote this all out to show why we need a way to buy more space and avoid the risky behavior and time-loss involved in using a workaround like this.
An alternate or additional improvement to address this Web size limit in Endnote would be to add two features to Endnote: (a) provide users with a way to display the file sizes of PDFs attached to our references and (b) provide a way to sort all references by attachment size. With those two improvements, we could manually downsize our collections as needed.
Bob
5 GB is very easy to outgrow. My library is over 15 GB now; anyone with years of research experience who doesn’t discard PDFs will run up against this limit. I have lost my entire library twice now because it would no longer open and could not be rescued. It takes a full day to get the library remade and organized again. I need a reliable replacement for EndNote that can handle a large library.
I’m at 9GB and, much as I’d like to, am not using endnote web because of the size limitations. If Endnote doesn’t want to increase size, at least provide different ways of determining which pdfs are stored (e.g. newest, those in particular groups etc.). Automatically storing the oldest seems to be a guarantee to store the least interesting papers - or at least those that one is least likely to want to read.
I was just informed by the Endnote technical support that an update to v7 is coming shortly (within month or two) that will remove the storage limit. Fingers crossed!