Upgrade StorageZotero update deleted my files
Hi,
I was using an old version of Zotero (i think .2?) and my libraries disappeared. I am working on a Mac. My Data directory was set to default. I tried to retrieve my data by following instructions from "Restoring Your Data". I do not see the 'storage' directory and I do not use Firefox. the size of my zotero.sqlite* file is 1,1MB created 27 January 2023 at 11:10 (if thats what you mean by timestamp).
Other files in the directory:
zotero.sqlite-journal
zotero.sqlite.1.bak
I followed the instructions but it didn't work. Does it mean I have no backup of the data on my computer and will not be able to retrieve my citations?
I also made an account to synch up data.
Please, help!
Best regards,
Kaya
I was using an old version of Zotero (i think .2?) and my libraries disappeared. I am working on a Mac. My Data directory was set to default. I tried to retrieve my data by following instructions from "Restoring Your Data". I do not see the 'storage' directory and I do not use Firefox. the size of my zotero.sqlite* file is 1,1MB created 27 January 2023 at 11:10 (if thats what you mean by timestamp).
Other files in the directory:
zotero.sqlite-journal
zotero.sqlite.1.bak
I followed the instructions but it didn't work. Does it mean I have no backup of the data on my computer and will not be able to retrieve my citations?
I also made an account to synch up data.
Please, help!
Best regards,
Kaya
It sounds like you've read Locating Missing Zotero Data, but that explains the situation. If you don't see 'storage' and there's no file beginning with zotero.sqlite that's larger than 1 MB, you either deleted the entire data directory — e.g., while trying to clear disk space — or this isn't the data directory you were using. If everything has a creation date of January 27th, that's when you did this. Unfortunately even macOS's built-in disk-cleanup tool makes it fairly easy to delete Zotero data if you don't know what you're doing.
The only code that exists in Zotero to delete the data directory is if you're using syncing and decide to switch accounts, in which case Zotero warns you very clearly that it's going to remove the data for one account when switching to the other. It doesn't sound like this applies in your case.
Zotero shows a banner encouraging you to set up syncing if you haven't. But if you didn't do that previously, you don't have a backup of the Zotero data directory, and you weren't using a custom data directory, I'm afraid there wouldn't be any way to recover your data (unless by some chance it's in your macOS trash).