Just lost 2 days of work! "Corrupt File" Error 1536946112

kjpruhs
Help!!
What just happened and how can I prevent it from happening again?!!
I just lost two days of in depth work on my thesis and now have to spend hours retracing my citations.... but am not comfortable doing so for fear of "corrupt file" again.

Please help... what steps to take to make sure this doesn't happen on the second round?

Error Code 1536946112
  • dstillman
    edited November 24, 2012
    [JavaScript Error: "uncaught exception: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x8052000b (NS_ERROR_FILE_CORRUPTED) [mozIStorageConnection.executeSimpleSQL]" nsresult: "0x8052000b (NS_ERROR_FILE_CORRUPTED)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/db.js :: :: line 149" data: no] [QUERY: DELETE FROM fulltextWords WHERE wordID NOT IN (SELECT wordID FROM fulltextItemWords)]"]
    This indicates that your database became corrupted. That could indicate a problem with your hard drive, since a database should never become corrupted during normal use. It's possible that some other software (e.g., security software) on your system interfered, though that's less likely on a Mac. This could also be corruption from a long time ago that finally manifested itself.

    A couple things, though:

    1) If you were syncing with the server—which you appear to be—and had auto-sync enabled, you shouldn't have lost any data, since you could always just do a Restore from Zotero Server in Sync->Reset pane of the Zotero preferences. It doesn't look like you've uploaded anything since the 20th, though, so perhaps you didn't have auto-sync enabled? You can check your online library at zotero.org.

    2) If you're on a Mac, you should be using Time Machine, which makes hourly backups of your entire hard drive that you could restore from in a pinch.

    Also, what exactly happened that makes you say that you lost data? If it detects a corrupted database, Zotero restores from its last automatic backup, which could be a day old, but if you had auto-sync enabled, Zotero should then automatically pull down more recent data from the server (without your using Restore from Zotero Server).

    Alternatively, if you hadn't synced, you could try using the DB Repair Tool on the zotero.sqlite.damaged file in your Zotero data directory and swapping that in.

    In any case, make sure you have a backup of your entire Zotero data directory before touching anything.
  • kjpruhs
    I have always had autosync enabled but it obviously had something wrong since no syncing had been done in the last two days. What I mean by I lost the data is that my citation files from the past two days are not in my zotero account (standalone,add-in, online library). Time machine did not store my citations files that are held within zotero.

    You are correct that it detected a corrupt file and restored from its last autobackup which apparently was on the 20th despite me having been using Zotero extensively for the past couple of days.

    What it sounds like is that i have to back up what is still there and then use the repair tool then reload my data...?
  • kjpruhs
    Also, my file is well over 100 MB which is over the limit on the upload of the DB repair tool. What should I do now?
  • dstillman
    Your zotero.sqlite.damaged file is over 100MB? How large is it?

    For future reference, note that failed syncs result in an error icon to the left of the sync icon, so it's a good idea to keep an eye out for that.
    Time machine did not store my citations files that are held within zotero.
    What do you mean by that? Time Machine backs up the Zotero data directory location by default, so if you had it running, you should have backups.

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

Sign In or Register to comment.