How to match existing PDFs to online references?

These days I download papers to read, and then put them into my Endnote DB if I feel I want to reference them later or read them later.  If the import filter doesn’t pick the data up, or it was in my database already, I have no way of getting the reference info into it that I can figure out.

I would appreciate anyone helping me figure out a way around this, and getting these PDFs properly linked to a reference.  Coming from Papers this is quite a downside to EN.

I’m having the same problem.  I imported 15 pdfs (as a test) into EN and it automatically grabbed the metadata for exactly zero of the documents.  I’ve been trying to figure out how to get it to look, and the only possibilty I could see was >right click >Find Reference Updates…  but I had no luck with any of them. 

The web tutorials show how to import the pdf but doesn’t mention anything about what to do for the records which didn’t automatically grab the metadata.  Instead it gives the impression that you have to manually input this data, which totally defeats the purpose of such a software.

I’m also surprised about the inability to drag-and-drop documents.  That seems like a fundamental functionality.

Lastly, being forced to import all subfolders within a folder you want in order to get the files within the parent folder is another major limitation.  Drag-and-drop would be the appropriate work-around, but since there is no d&d…

So far EN is a huge disappointment compared to the free Zotero and Mendeley, both of which I was proficiently operating within a matter of 30 minutes.  It’s been a few days with EN and I still don’t get it.

Swings and roundabouts as they say in Britain.  I guess my work flow has always developed from my use of Endnote, so I don’t miss that. - never used it… except to drop a PDF on an already downloaded record.  They do watch these discussions and comments though.  I find Endnote far more powerful on the referencing side than the PDF managerial side and after all, that is what it was designed as.  Trying to add all the other functionalities to a basic program that does that is where it becomes unwieldly.  Like building a home bit by bit with additions, rather than building it from scratch.  But starting over means they lose their Endnote faithful.  

This still does not seem to be resolved, correct?  I’ve searched the forums and have found one other request for this feature.

Also coming from Papers, missing this feature in EndNote is a huge let down.  I would like to use my references from graduate school in my new job, but we are forced to use EndNote.  I don’t want to go and redownload all of the hundreds of references I have from grad school just so they will comply with EndNote’s metadata requirements - I was in graduate school a long time, some of these files are old!  There should be a feature, like Papers, where you can match existing online metadata by searching Author and title.  Typing in all of the information is just ridiculous, especially because there is no way to simultaniously view the pdf and metadata in EndNote.

Please add this feature EndNote. If you can’t figure out what we’re asking for, “All about metadata and matching” on Papers/Mekentosj forum.  (This forum will not let me post a link to the video describing matching).

I have the same question, too. It is 2017. The original question was made several years ago.

I wonder if there is a feature in X8 that I am missing?

If so, would someone please tell me how to solve this problem?

I have about 60 PDFs, and no metadata to go with them.

They were downloaded from various sources.

I would like to match them to the references they belong to, or 

for Endnote to read the PDFs and obtain the data from the title and author, etc.

It doesn’t seem like it would be that hard…

Thank you.

Endnote Team,

Please combine the 

“Endnote online capture reference tool”

and the

“PDFs to create EN references”.

We need a tool that can do this series of tasks:

  1. Match the existing PDF name to a name online (it can be found if it was DLd).

  2. Extract the metadata from that page online

  3. Import it into EN as a reference to the existing PDF in EndNote.

This would make my life so much easier.

Thank you.

Hello all,

I seem to have the same problem that all the others here experience as well. I want to change to EndNote from Papers as it is used at my University and with me now starting writing the literature research part of my PhD, seems to be a good point to make that move, before it gets too late.

I have moved all my sources from Papers to EndNote successfully…well…except the fact, that about 60% of the imported PDFs apparently don’t match EndNote´s expectation of MetaData and therefore there is nothing imported.

Did I read it correct, that there is no way of searching missing metadata online on the go? I apply this quite often as I scan and import parts of books as well and the online search has been very powerful for me.

Can I match a PDF with the online search in X8 or is this still not possible?