Restore library from web version?

Opal · February 9, 2023

My laptop ssd had become faulty, resulting in a corrupted zotero file (~2,5 GB). Unfortunatly, my backups are rather old. In the web version, many item are newer than in my backup, but it says it consists of only 305 MB of data. The most important data to me is not the pdfs, but my own independent notes and references. So what would be the best procedure? How would I import into the app from the web version? Any hints are welcome.

adamsmith · February 9, 2023

The first thing I'd try is to repair the Zotero database as described here: https://www.zotero.org/utils/dbfix/manual
or to restore from the last automatic backup as described here: https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#restoring_from_the_last_automatic_backup

If that doesn't work, you can simply use sync to restore your data, but would likely use stored PDFs: https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#restoring_your_zotero_data_using_zotero_syncing

You can then copy the contents of your storage folder from your back-up to the active one in the zotero data directory, choosing merge during copy to get any PDFs that are in the backup but not online.

Opal · February 9, 2023

Thank you, will try and report.