How to Restore Deleted Folder

etoztnp
I accidentally hit the DEL key while the pointer was at a folder. The folder automatically was deleted without prompting me. I have tried to undo CTRL-Z, but nothing happened. I checked the Trashcan, but it was empty. Any option to restore a deleted folder? Thanks!
  • dstillman
    edited July 26, 2023
    It definitely would've prompted you — there's literally no way for it to get to the collection-deleting code without showing a prompt. So either you moved the collection somewhere else by mistake or you pressed the accept button in the prompt accidentally (e.g., with the keyboard).

    Anyhow, if you just did this, you should be able to restore a deleted collection from one of the automatic backups. Note the specific instructions for restoring collections.

    Also note that the items are most likely still in your library root, even though you deleted the collection.

    A future version of Zotero will make it possible to restore a deleted collection from the trash.
  • stastnaev
    No, it does not prompt you sadly, and it has almost given me a heart attack just moments ago. Luckily, I found this thread: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/59133/restore-a-deleted-collection and followed what rickus said, however, after I synced, it disappeared from the "Save Me" folder, so I repeated my steps, but this time I exported the deleted library and put it back again and that worked. It was awful though...
  • dstillman
    You can look at the code yourself:

    https://github.com/zotero/zotero/blob/48c7c60bf1ef4c0355f6b27cd2247db0accaf9b2/chrome/content/zotero/zoteroPane.js#L2283C7-L2355

    It can't delete a collection without prompting. You can try it yourself right now with a temporary collection, so I'm not sure why you're arguing about this.

    I linked to exact instructions for restoring a deleted collection above, so I'm not sure why you're following unofficial instructions from some other thread. If you're going to post here, please trust that we know what we're talking about and are going to give you correct advice, or else don't waste our time.
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