lost all my folder structure

cobaltsong

hi. suddenly lost literally all of my folder structuring. i appear to still have all the files, but now all completely unsorted. no idea how this has happened - but i have been using zotero on a few new devices lately. any advice would be hugely appreciated!

cobaltsong

i suspect on reflection it might be something to do with a mistake i made with sync. i assumed that if i selected "my library" on a recently-logged-in device and selected "sync" it would sync the folder structure i had on my main device to this new one. but i think maybe it did the exact reverse somehow?? synced the lack-of-folders i currently had on this device to all my other devices?? explanation would be so helpful - what's the proper way to make my file structure on a new zotero device look the same as it does on my main device, if that makes sense?

dstillman

if i selected "my library" on a recently-logged-in device and selected "sync"

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Selected "sync" how?

The proper way to bring your devices in sync is to let Zotero sync — that's it. You'll never lose data via syncing unless you deleted it on another device.

If for some reason you went out of your way to use Replace Online Library from the Sync → Reset section of the Zotero settings, that would overwrite the online library with your local library.

But you may just be looking in the wrong place? You have nearly 60 collections in your online library, and nothing has been deleted recently. Did you just collapse My Library?

cobaltsong

my apologies for the lack of clarity - right-clicking on "My Library" in the panel on the lefthand side of zotero desktop, and clicking "Sync" from the drop-down menu. here is an image of all i can see on my zotero desktop - in fact as i opened zotero i watched all of my folders disappear from this view, which was quite disconcerting! i don't believe i have "My Library" collapsed, so it's odd that i can't find my collections anymore...

https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u16428669/pisonthwqb18vnuscmpt.png

dstillman

Your collections are in the trash. You or someone else moved them there. If you don't think you did it, it's possible you left yourself logged in on a shared computer, and you can remove all browser sessions and applications on in your account security settings and log in again on your own devices.

cobaltsong

oh, brilliant! all restored with no issue, thank you so much!!

while you're here - i'm not sure i exactly understand what deleting keys in the application section of settings would do. would it just prevent any zotero apps that are opened on shared computers automatically accessing my account? i'd just have to re-log in to syncing on them, i assume? :)

dstillman

Yes, exactly.

dstillman

And to be clear, if you're using Zotero on shared computers, you'd want to make sure to always go to the Sync settings and unlink your account and remove local data when you stop using the computer.