Data library transfer from Word bibliograpy to zotero program

sarah_ms

Dear Zotero team,

Yesterday I had to buy a new computer and unfortunately my data library and folders were not synchronised with Zotero Online. As a result, my entire online bibliography is now only visible in the Word documents that were previously connected to Zotero. The new Zotero download does not contain this information. I am also unable to retrieve the data from the old hard drive from my old computter. Somehow I cannot find the place where it was saved. (Or it was never saved at all).

Does anyone have any idea how I can reconnect the Zotero bibliography from my Word documents to the Zotero library on my computer?

Thank you and best regards

Sarah

dstillman

If you were using Zotero on the old computer and you still have the hard drive, you should be able to get it back. See Zotero Data for what you're looking for.

Beyond that, see https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/importing_formatted_bibliographies#citations_inserted_using_a_reference_manager, but that'd be an option of last resort.

sarah_ms

Hello dstillman,

thanks a lot! Unfortunately, I dont get the location where the Zotero documents were saved... So it is not accessible for me. Is there another option?

dstillman

That's where Zotero stores its data unless you chose a custom data directory from the Advanced pane of the settings. I'm afraid that's all I can tell you. I linked to your other option above.

sarah_ms

I installed Zotero two times on the old hard drive, that is why I did not found it first. I now copied the "storage" foulder from my old hard drive to the new lapop, but I cannot open it with Zotero. Do you have an idea how I could open it?

dstillman

It's not just the 'storage' folder — it's the Zotero folder containing zotero.sqlite and 'storage'. The page I linked to explains how to restore from a backup, which is what you have. You'll need to follow that.

https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#restoring_your_zotero_data_from_a_backup1

sarah_ms

Thanks for the link, that really helped. I now copied the foulder, but am still not able to open the zotero.splite file with Zotero

dstillman

You don't "open" the file with Zotero. The instructions explain what to do.