Where is my library?

nerllybird
I've just got a new laptop, I'm not particularly techie and this is about the gazillionth thing I've had problems with, so please excuse me throwing up my hands and asking for help, no doubt the answer is in the FAQs somewhere but my poor tired brain can't see it.

I had Zotero on my previous laptop with a small library which I would like to sync to this computer. It appears that I set up an account previously, altho I didn't remember doing so (when I went to set one up after downloading Zotero on here, I discovered that my email addy was already in use and that I had in fact registered with my 'default' username). As I understand it, my stuff should be accessible from both laptops, but my library is telling me it's empty.

Is there something else I need to do? should I just wait (there is no syncing icon appearing anywhere)?

Thanks in advance for any advice
Helen
  • mark
    edited October 18, 2010
    You don't provide much information about what you did or did not do.

    Here is a page that is really useful to read: Zotero Data Fundamentals.

    If you have a new laptop, and a new Zotero installed on it, then the library probably is empty because you have not told Zotero yet where to go and find your data.

    If you have previously synced your data, there will be a copy on the Zotero server. In that case you need to tell Zotero to sync. See here for what you need to do.

    If you have never synced your data in the past, it will still be on your old laptop and you should be able to retrieve it from there. If you still can run Zotero on your old laptop the easiest way to get your data onto your new one would probably to sync (on which see the link above). If you can't run Zotero but if you do have a full backup of all the old files then chances are that your library is among these files. But before telling you where to look you need to tell us what you have -- a fully functioning old laptop, a backup of the files, or something else.

This is an old discussion that has not been active in a long time. Instead of commenting here, you should start a new discussion. If you think the content of this discussion is still relevant, you can link to it from your new discussion.