I've set the HOME environment variable to "C:/Users/andre_000/Documents"
and hence need the .. to get into the Dropbox folder.

Executing (find-file org-ref-bibliography-notes) does find and open the
correct notes file.

Using an absolute path, as in:

(setq org-ref-bibliography-notes
"C:/Users/andre_000/Dropbox/_biblio/org-ref/bibnotes.org"
      org-ref-default-bibliography
'("C:/Users/andre_000/Dropbox/_biblio/refs.bib"))

results in the same error.

After dropping a PDF file into the .bib file I end up with the following
additional entry (for example) in the bibnotes.org file. I thought I'd
include it just to ensure that nothing gets chopped of - this entry
correctly reflect the PDF.

** TODO 2007 - Taenia Saginata in Europe
 :PROPERTIES:
  :Custom_ID: dorny_2007
  :AUTHOR: Dorny \& Praet
  :JOURNAL: Veterinary Parasitology
  :YEAR: 2007
  :VOLUME: 149
  :PAGES: 22-24
  :DOI: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2007.07.004
  :URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vetpar.2007.07.004
 :END:

Does the notes file need a specific set up in terms of headers etc?


-- 
Dr Andreas Kiermeier | Director
Statistical Process Improvement Consulting and Training Pty Ltd
Mbl: +61 (4)23 028 565 | Email: andreas.kiermeier@gmail.com
Australia

On 25 December 2015 at 13:17, John Kitchin <jkitchin@andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:

> That is an odd looking path. On Mac that would expand to something like
>
> /Users/Dropbox/_biblio/org-ref/bibnotes.org
>
> and on linux
>
> /home/Dropbox/_biblio/org-ref/bibnotes.org
>
> usually you should not have permission for that, and neither make sense
> to me.
>
> Does (file-exists-p org-ref-bibliography-notes) return true?
>
> or alternatively does (find-file org-ref-bibliography-notes) actually
> open a writable file?
>
> I would think this is what you want (unless you have some unusual setup
> and permissions):
>
> (setq org-ref-bibliography-notes "~/Dropbox/_biblio/org-ref/bibnotes.org"
>        org-ref-default-bibliography '("~/Dropbox/_biblio/refs.bib"))
>
> i.e. no .. in the path.
>
> Andreas Kiermeier writes:
>
> > Hi John,
> >
> > I've set it at follows (based on your setup) in my init.el file:
> >
> > (setq org-ref-bibliography-notes "~/../Dropbox/_biblio/org-ref/
> bibnotes.org"
> >       org-ref-default-bibliography '("~/../Dropbox/_biblio/refs.bib"))
> >
> > So, non-nil.
> >
> > Andreas
> >
> > On 25 December 2015 at 00:45, John Kitchin <jkitchin@andrew.cmu.edu>
> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> On Thu, Dec 24, 2015 at 1:04 AM, Andreas Kiermeier <
> >> andreas.kiermeier@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> org-ref-open-bibtex-notes()
> >>
> >>
> >> That looks like a different error that occurs in
> org-ref-open-bibtex-notes().
> >> Up to that point everything looks normal.
> >>
> >> What do you have your org-ref-bibliography-notes variable set to? The
> >> default value is nil which would cause that error.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> John
> >>
> >> -----------------------------------
> >> Professor John Kitchin
> >> Doherty Hall A207F
> >> Department of Chemical Engineering
> >> Carnegie Mellon University
> >> Pittsburgh, PA 15213
> >> 412-268-7803
> >> @johnkitchin
> >> http://kitchingroup.cheme.cmu.edu
> >>
> >>
>
> --
> Professor John Kitchin
> Doherty Hall A207F
> Department of Chemical Engineering
> Carnegie Mellon University
> Pittsburgh, PA 15213
> 412-268-7803
> @johnkitchin
> http://kitchingroup.cheme.cmu.edu
>