Upgrade Storageserious problems with duplicates after update and import
Hi guys,
New to zotero after using endnote last 4-5 yrs, and, although I love the program, I have some serious problems with duplicates that I can't find an answer to, hope you can help.
I have a huge anthropological database, 7000+ PDFs. After successfully getting my database imported (THAT took a week of trial and error editing), everything looked great, all my PDF's were there. However, I knew I probably have 500 to 600 duplicates originally, but when I clicked on duplicate items in Zotero, it showed EVERY entry as a duplicate! Zotero listed two of everything. Understand, it didn't show that in the database, just duplicate items.. So I tried merging a few and checking the file in the database, and everything seemed fine, all fields were there with a single PDF attached... I figured it was just a glitch in zotero software. So I got a small utility to simply press 'click' every 10 seconds, and I expected I would just merge them and eventually get through them.
However, the last few days must have included an update, because the screen format has changed. now when I click on duplicate items, it shows only ONE file, but on the right it shows two or three instances of the file and asks to choose the master file. THE PROBLEM NOW is that when I click on merge, it actually duplicates the PDF in the master database; in other words, when I go back and look up the citation in the database, it actually shows 2, 3, up to 5, copies of the PDF! Zotero STILL lists every file as duplicate, but I've stopped merging them, because of this new problem...
This is extremely frustrating, not only because I really do have dups in the database, but because I have several hundred more files to add from other colleagues that I know I have dups of some of them, and I simply can't corrupt a 7000+ database. I've read thru all the forums, and I can't find an answer, and can't believe that 'finding duplicates' has been such a problem for Zotero for so long (I've seen forums on getting duplicate function going back to 2006...)
Is there any way to correct this? Sorry for the long explanation, but I'm pretty desperate and am to the point I may have to dump Zotero and find something else if I can't fix this duplication problem..
Thanks for any help!
New to zotero after using endnote last 4-5 yrs, and, although I love the program, I have some serious problems with duplicates that I can't find an answer to, hope you can help.
I have a huge anthropological database, 7000+ PDFs. After successfully getting my database imported (THAT took a week of trial and error editing), everything looked great, all my PDF's were there. However, I knew I probably have 500 to 600 duplicates originally, but when I clicked on duplicate items in Zotero, it showed EVERY entry as a duplicate! Zotero listed two of everything. Understand, it didn't show that in the database, just duplicate items.. So I tried merging a few and checking the file in the database, and everything seemed fine, all fields were there with a single PDF attached... I figured it was just a glitch in zotero software. So I got a small utility to simply press 'click' every 10 seconds, and I expected I would just merge them and eventually get through them.
However, the last few days must have included an update, because the screen format has changed. now when I click on duplicate items, it shows only ONE file, but on the right it shows two or three instances of the file and asks to choose the master file. THE PROBLEM NOW is that when I click on merge, it actually duplicates the PDF in the master database; in other words, when I go back and look up the citation in the database, it actually shows 2, 3, up to 5, copies of the PDF! Zotero STILL lists every file as duplicate, but I've stopped merging them, because of this new problem...
This is extremely frustrating, not only because I really do have dups in the database, but because I have several hundred more files to add from other colleagues that I know I have dups of some of them, and I simply can't corrupt a 7000+ database. I've read thru all the forums, and I can't find an answer, and can't believe that 'finding duplicates' has been such a problem for Zotero for so long (I've seen forums on getting duplicate function going back to 2006...)
Is there any way to correct this? Sorry for the long explanation, but I'm pretty desperate and am to the point I may have to dump Zotero and find something else if I can't fix this duplication problem..
Thanks for any help!
There's no need to use duplicate merging for this. Just sort your library by Date Added, select the earlier ranges of items, and delete them, and then empty the trash.
Thanks for your reply. However, I always started with a clean installation when importing (most of my tries were on a PC; only good import was done on a MAC once I figured out the editing). I simply moved the endnote collection from ext hard drive, and copied over the corrected import file. besides, ALL 7000+ files show duplicate in 'duplicate items', but not the library.. if it was a 'failed' install, it wouldn't show all of them (the best I've ever managed in the past was 1000 imports). So all of my files have the same date created stamp, "8/2/12"..
The exported library txt file is all single, by the way, i just checked.
Darryl
Also, is the trash empty (though I don't believe the Duplicates view should take trashed items into account)?