Help recovering Zotero references from Word doc, lost local library

ElenaOpie

Hi,

I recently set up a Zotero account and realised that my previous Zotero use was local only - I hadn’t created an account or synced my library. When I set up the account, my local references disappeared, and I no longer see them in Zotero desktop/library.

But! I have the Word document I had been working on, which still seems to be linked to the original Zotero references. When I use the “Add/Edit Citation” button in Word, old references appear in the citation search bar. It seems the data is still there.

I’ve read about the Zotero Reference Extractor tool but find the process a bit too technical, and I’m worried about doing it incorrectly and losing the references for good.

Could someone kindly guide me step-by-step on how to safely extract those references from the Word document and rebuild my Zotero library?

I’d really appreciate beginner-friendly instructions. Thank you so much in advance for your time and support.

I use a Mac and am using the latest Zotero that can be downloaded. I have now created an account :)

Best,
El

dstillman

Just to be clear, what you describe would never happen on the first sync for a new account. Zotero would simply upload your local data. If your local data disappeared, you may have actually had an account previously and clicked through a warning to switch accounts that said it was going to remove your local data and replace it with the data from the new account.

If you don't have a backup of your Zotero data directory, using Reference Extractor and importing the CSL JSON into Zotero would likely be your best bet, though you'd need to reinsert all the citations in the document, choosing from the My Library of the citation dialog search results rather than the "Cited" section.