Annotation Migration Issue from Mendeley Desktop 1.18 to Zotero 6

Spartandawg444
Hi All,

I am new to Zotero. I've successfully migrated just over 2400 references (including PDFs) into Zotero using the local instructions outlined here: https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/mendeley_local_import.

However, as I review some of the files in Zotero, I noticed that some of the PDFs do not have the highlights and annotations. Wondering if anyone has any suggestions. Given the amount of files, I am unsure how many PDFs do not have the highlights and annotations. In full disclosure, I have not upgraded my storage yet, so that may be an issue. Please let me know if it is. I was hoping to see if I can transfer all of the highlights and annotations from Mendeley to Zotero before upgrading the storage amount.
  • dstillman
    Any reason you didn't follow the standard import steps?

    Have you been using 1.18 this whole time, or did you downgrade just for the migration? Have you checked that the annotations in question actually appear in Mendeley Desktop 1.18?
  • Spartandawg444
    Hello! Thanks for your response.

    I did try the standard import steps first, using the process outlined in the link you provided. However, I received an error message and not all of my references loaded. At that time I was using Mendeley Desktop 1.19. That is when I synced my library, then downgraded to MD 1.18 and tried the local migration route. And, yes, I have checked the annotations in MD 1.18 and they do appear.

    I hope this answers all of your questions.
  • dstillman
    Are you still having trouble with this?

    Do you remember what the error message was from the online importer?

    If you provide a Debug ID for repeating the import, we could try to debug this, but very few people are using the local import process at this point.
  • Spartandawg444
    Yes, while most are fine, there are some PDFs that are missing annotations. Is there are way to migrate individual files and annotations (rather than the entire library)?

    Unfortunately, I don't recall the error message.
  • dstillman
    Is there are way to migrate individual files and annotations (rather than the entire library)?
    No, but we can still look at a Debug ID for another import to see if anything is logged. Note that a repeated import won't duplicate data, and there's an option to only import new items and leave existing items unchanged. (If you've made changes in Zotero, to be safe you should first make a backup of your Zotero data directory and temporarily disable auto-sync in the Sync pane of the Zotero settings.)

    I'd recommend trying this with the online importer.
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