Urgent: Entire library disappeared and synced to server today

louannenoiret
Hello,

Today (July 7, around 11:13 AM, France time), my entire Zotero library disappeared.

I had over 1300 references.

I was using Zotero 7 on macOS with automatic data sync enabled.

My local zotero.sqlite was recreated today at 11:13 and is now only 1.1 MB.

My online library at zotero.org is now also empty.

My storage folder is still present.

I have stopped using Zotero to avoid making the situation worse.

Is there any possibility of restoring my online library from a server backup or previous revision?

Thank you very much.
  • adamsmith
    edited 3 hours ago
    I don't work for them, but Zotero isn't typically able to restore libraries from server back-ups. But something is weird:
    a) 1.1MB is a new, empty library. It's not a library with 1,300 items deleted. Did you do anything to trigger this, e.g. use disk cleaning software or remove your Zotero account?
    b) Are you absolutely certain that you're logging in with the same Zotero account which you synced with the 1,300 items before? The only way items would disappear from a synced library would be to first move them to trash and then empty the trash or if you went into the advanced sync preferences and clicked "Replace Online Library". It seems highly unlikely either of these could have happened accidentally.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    The online library has 10K top-level items, all uploaded today (but created over the last year). It wasn't syncing before today.

    An empty local data directory would be due to either deleting the database with disk-cleaning software or switching accounts and giving it permission to delete local data for the old account. If there was a populated 'storage' folder, it was almost certainly disk-cleaning software, as explained in Locating Missing Zotero Data.
  • louannenoiret
    Thanks, I found my folders on my computer and added them back into Zotero.
    I think I panicked a bit too soon.
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