Zotero 7: Zotero database “zotero.sqlite” appears to have become corrupted

machadorobert

I've been using Zotero since the early days and never has this happened. My zotero.sqlite is on a flash drive. This morning, all was fine. Now, I'm getting this error message

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The Zotero database “zotero.sqlite” appears to have become corrupted.

Your data was restored from the last automatic backup from 9/20/2024 at 3:54:23 PM. The damaged file was saved to your Zotero data directory as “zotero.sqlite-4.damaged”.
If your data directory is stored in a cloud storage folder or on a network drive, you should move it back to the default location immediately.
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If I try to restore from a previous backup (which gets prompted after the above message), it doesn't restore, and says this:
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Database upgrade error

Error: Error(s) encountered during statement execution: database disk image is malformed [QUERY: CREATE INDEX itemData_valueID ON itemData(valueID)] [PARAMS: ] [ERROR: database disk image is malformed]
Zotero.DBConnection.prototype.queryAsync@chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/db.js:686:13
From previous event:
this.init@chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/zotero.js:414:25
getContentsFromURL@chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/file.js:335:13
Zotero.Intl</<@chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/intl.js:99:35
Zotero.Intl</this.getString@chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/intl.js:143:18
this.getString@chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/zotero.js:1502:24
ZoteroPane<@chrome://zotero/content/zoteroPane.js:3129:19
@chrome://zotero/content/zoteroPane.js:31:18
@chrome://zotero/content/zoteroPane.xhtml:80:25
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It then offers me two choices: Check for update (and there is none), or Quit.
I can't access any of my content (since like 2011) unless I do so at Zotero.org.

I even tried uninstalling Z7 and reinstalling. That didn't work.
I tried downloading Z6 because again, this hasn't happened until Z7. That didn't work.
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Any advice?
Is it possible to download a zotero.sqlite from the Zotero.org? All my data is intact there.
Another idea?

Thanks!

-R

machadorobert

Nevermind! I uninstalled again, rebooted, then reinstalled into a custom directory location (not sure if this mattered or not) and then finally, Z opened as a fresh install. I then sync'd with the Z cloud and all is there. I really though need to use Z on multiple computers and have been used to using the flash drive as the data directory location. But now I'm worried that Z7 is not as tolerant of using flash drives as previous Z versions. Dan, thoughts on this?

adamsmith

I don't think the change is Z6 to Z7 -- flash drives have always been very tenuous and it's generally not a great idea to work with them with databases (i.e., sqlite files).

machadorobert

So if you're using Z on three different computers, a phone, and a tablet ... best to just keep the default locations on each? I guess my challenge is that I liked knowing that my flash drive was always the most recent data and I would back up that file to another cloud. I guess I'll work it out, maybe just trying to pick one location as primary and then backing that one up. If anyone has any different/better ideas, thanks in advance for letting me know.