Upgrade StorageZotero limit for references
Hi,
I previously tried migrating from EndNote to an earlier version of Zotero, but I gave up because the database became very slow when working with around 25,000 references. I’ve now started again with Zotero 7.0 and currently have about 3,000 references.
Is there any information on the upper limit of references that Zotero can handle efficiently? I’ve been working with EndNote for the past 15 years, and while I’d like to make the switch, I’d like to better understand this aspect before fully committing.
Thanks
I previously tried migrating from EndNote to an earlier version of Zotero, but I gave up because the database became very slow when working with around 25,000 references. I’ve now started again with Zotero 7.0 and currently have about 3,000 references.
Is there any information on the upper limit of references that Zotero can handle efficiently? I’ve been working with EndNote for the past 15 years, and while I’d like to make the switch, I’d like to better understand this aspect before fully committing.
Thanks
There is no general limit, but some situations could be more problematic than others.
Thanks for your answer.
The performance issues occurred primarily when working with large bibliographic datasets in Zotero v6.0. Upon checking, my library contained approximately 50,000 references and 6,700 attached PDFs. Tasks such as batch editing, syncing, and exporting were noticeably slow, despite running on a Windows 11 Pro system with 64 GB of RAM.
That said, I'm pleasantly surprised by the capabilities of Zotero v7.0 and I'm really enjoying the improvements. It feels significantly more responsive and efficient so far. That said, I'm proceeding gradually, just in case any issues arise with such a large library...
Batch editing: I can see how this could be slow as Zotero functionality for that is rather minimal (perhaps you were using a plugin? or javascript instructions in the console?) - there is probably a large potential for improvement.
Syncing: changing thousands of records and/or files could take time, but this should not prevent you from working normally on your machine?
Exporting: it might mean various things, can you be more specific? Exporting how, to do what?
That test was done several months ago, so I don’t have the exact details to fully answer your questions at the moment. I’ll try to run similar tests again using the new version.
As far as I know, Zotero uses SQLite for its database. Do you know if performance is affected by how the references are organized—specifically, whether it's better to segment them into different collections, or if it makes no difference whether everything is stored in a single large library?
I'm currently proceeding with the import in batches of 400 references. After each import, I delete the automatically generated collection (e.g., “References 1–400”) that Zotero creates from the EndNote file.
This helps keep the library structure clean while preserving the imported items themselves.
Thanks
My opinion again: there is no general size limit, and no general strategy that will be better at avoiding performance problems... SQLite is probably not the best relational DB technology out there, but working with many thousands of Zotero records is not unheard of. If you experience problems with a specific task or goal, don't hesitate to report it and someone will certainly be able to help. Until then, the exercise is a bit hypothetical :-)
Thanks for the clarifications, you are right. However, going back to EndNote would be quite time-consuming.