Restoring deleted Zotero files

KarelGreen

Does anyone know of any way to restore a zotero library to an older version via online sync.

I've done the classic, try to move to a new computer and mess everything up in the process. I think my local is gone but is there anyway to restore old files from the online sync?

adamsmith

You can definitely replace the local library with an online copy, but could you say a bit more what you've done locally?
Unless you deleted all your copies on moving files, I don't really see how you can actually mess things up locally (it also matters exactly what you did in order to get the steps for restoring from the web library right).

KarelGreen

OK i've managed to find an older backup from the zotero.sqlite file, but every time I try to sync it, it deletes all the files to match the online version - which is empty.

So the current problem is getting the online version (currently empty) to match my local version (has papers) when syncing.

dstillman

You didn't answer the answer, but it sounds like you went out of your way to delete all your data in either the local or online library? That's the only way you would have deletions in the online library. For future reference, note that changing computers is as simple as either syncing or copying a single folder.

At this point, though, if you want to restore from a local backup and overwrite the online library, that's explained here:

https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#restoring_your_zotero_data_from_a_backup_and_overwriting_synced_changes