folders and references disappeared but still available at the zotero website

AndreaCC

Hello,

I had to make a reinstallation of my mac and I did not save the zotero folder. I still have all the information at the zotero website, but no folders or references in my zotero (Firefox).

How can I get back all the folders in place? I have folders of my own and I'm also part of several groups.

Please, help!

Andrea.

adamsmith

have you just tried syncing Zotero? That should be all you need to do (though for future reference, it is strongly recommended you have an actual back-up of Zotero as you should have for all important information: http://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#backing_up_your_zotero_library )

AndreaCC

Thank you, adamsmith! I realized I had lost the Zotero word for mac plug in. I added it and the syncing started to work. Could than have stopped the syncing earlier today? I will follow your recommendation and start backing up my zotero library. Is it a good idea to put the zotero folder in my documents folder that is backed-up automatically every day?

adamsmith

Could than have stopped the syncing earlier today?

I can't tell you what went wrong with syncing, but it definitely wasn't the Word plugin. Those have nothing to do whatsoever with sync (and aren't required unless you want to cite in Word).

Is it a good idea to put the zotero folder in my documents folder that is backed-up automatically every day?

as long as the Documents folder is still on your local harddrive then yes. Putting the zotero data folder onto a network drive can cause problems. Note that changing the location in Zotero doesn't move the contents of the folder. You'll have to do that manually.