Restoring from an Automatic Backup

D_Allard
Hi Everyone,

We ran into a problem with a group library in a project that we are working on. Namely that all of the data was mistakenly moved into the trash. The person who did it was unable to restore the data from the trash as it just came out flat and there are hundreds of folders in the collection.

So we decided that they should try to restore from an automatic backup and follow these steps: https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#restoring_from_the_last_automatic_backup

Everything worked and she has done everything up until step 6 but we can see no way to duplicate the 18K items and hundreds of folders en masse? Since this is a group library we cannot use the "Restore to Zotero Server" option.

So does anyone know what our best route would be?

I thought of renaming the collection but see no option when I ctrl-click on the collection within the Group Library. Could we export, sync, and then import? Or add something to the group library to some how make it "newer"?

Thanks!
  • adamsmith
    I'm surprised restore from trash didn't work, that should have been the way to go (and include collection information).

    I believe export/import might be your best bet at this point then, but maybe Dan has a better idea, so wait for him to comment. The two big issues with this are
    a) it will create a bit of a mess with existing Word/LibreOffice documents and
    b) the initial sync will be _huge_ for everyone and uploading an 18k library to the server all at once may not go through smoothly.
  • dstillman
    adamsmith is right that restoring from the trash should work. You should actually be able to do that on any computer that synced the new changes — just find the items in the trash, select them all, and choose Restore to Library. If that doesn't put the items back in their original collections, let us know (and keep that backup in case we end up needing it). All the deleted items are still associated with collections on the server. (If some collections were actually deleted themselves, that'd be another matter, though.)
  • dstillman
    edited March 23, 2014
    Also, disable auto-sync while you test this, and make a backup of zotero.sqlite from your Zotero data directory first.
  • D_Allard
    Hi Dan and Adam,

    Thank you for the responses. The person has made backups of the original database and the autobackups, so we should be able to try out restoring from the trash.

    The person that sent the items to the trash doesn't know exactly how she did it so we're not 100% sure on what was deleted and what hasn't been deleted. She's doing this from a remote location so she just told us that the items were restored flat, which is why we attempted to restore from the autobackup.

    We have held off syncing the changes, but will try it locally, given what you have said. We will let you know what happens.
  • D_Allard
    edited March 23, 2014
    Ok, so we synchronized with the server and got the latest Group Library down. The library with all of the folders/collections are there but they are empty with all of the items in the trash. When I attempt to recover the items from the trash, instead of going into the correct folder, the items are sent to the main directory of the library.

    Any tips for the best way to proceed? WE are not set to automatically synch with the servers so all of the changes that we made are local only.

    Also I was only testing a few items at a time instead of restoring all of the items given the number of the files we are working with.

    Thanks.
  • dstillman
    Can you provide the URL for an example item online that's not ending up back in a collection when you restore it?
  • dstillman
    When I attempt to recover the items from the trash, instead of going into the correct folder, the items are sent to the main directory of the library.
    And just to be totally clear here, you're saying after doing this the collections are still empty?
  • D_Allard
    Hi Dan,

    Did you want the URL of the item in the trash? Or did you want us to synchronize back to the servers and then send you that URL?
    And just to be totally clear here, you're saying after doing this the collections are still empty?
    Yes, the collection is empty and the item only appears in the root of the Library.

    Thanks for the great support.
  • dstillman
    The URL of the item in the trash.
  • D_Allard
    Hi Dan,

    The Group Library is a private library does that matter any way? Hopefully there are no security concerns with making the URL public.

    Here is the item:

    https://www.zotero.org/groups/178390/items/collectionKey/trash/itemKey/94PGG2P6/itemPage/457
  • dstillman
    OK, so on the server, that item exists only in this collection:

    https://www.zotero.org/groups/178390/items/collectionKey/EK3585SK

    (I believe that URL will work.)

    And it should also be there after you restore it from the trash. Is it not? (Remember that you can see which collections items are in, even when the items are in the trash.) Do you expect to see it elsewhere?
  • D_Allard
    Hi Dan,

    After we restored the item it ended up in the root of this: https://www.zotero.org/groups/178390/items/ It did not end up in the URL you sent.

    When I try to see what collection items in the trash belong to nothing appears to happen when I hold down the option key. For other items they appear to jump back to the top of the trash.

    Holding down the option key on the item that I restored from the trash results in nothing. It just stays in the root of the Library and nothing new is highlighted.

    One other item I forgot to mention, when I synchronized with the server this time it froze at the end (full progress bar for a couple of hours but the icon was still spinning). This happens from time to time so we simply shit down FireFox and restart and it seemed fine.
  • dstillman
    Could you provide a Debug ID that shows restoring an item from the trash that doesn't end up back in collections where you expect it? I've just tested this feature and it works perfectly fine for me.
  • dstillman
    Also, that item above still exists in the collection online. Have you tried restoring it from the trash there? (This should certainly work in the client too, though.)
  • D_Allard
    Hi Dan,

    Is the restore option online the "Remove from Trash" option? I just don't want to mess anything up there.

    If that's the case I will try that and let you know where the item goes.

    I will try to get you a Debug ID for an item that doesn't restore properly tomorrow, as it's getting a bit late here.

    Also is it possible to determine which congestion an item belongs to online?

    Thanks.
  • dstillman
    Is the restore option online the "Remove from Trash" option?
    Yes.
  • dstillman
    Also is it possible to determine which congestion an item belongs to online?
    No.
  • D_Allard
    Hi Dan,

    I restored that item from the trash and it did indeed end up in this folder:
    https://www.zotero.org/groups/178390/items/collectionKey/EK3585SK

    So that is a good thing.

    Also I'm sorry for the congestion / collection typo! It was the end of a very long day. I will attempt to get the debug ID for you this evening.

    Worst case scenario we could restore the items from the trash online. A a slow process but it looks like it will work.
  • D_Allard
    Hi,

    Just a quick update, I did a full sync and let it fully finish overnight and items appear to be restoring from the trash properly. It could be that they always were and were just lost within the large number of collections we have.

    I didn't realize that holding the option key simply highlighted the collection the item was in, I expected it to scroll to the item or popup a tooltip (future feature request!)

    I'm going to try to restore all of the items in the trash now, the downside is that there were a thousand or so items in the trash that deserved to be in the trash that will be restored, but at least all is not lost.

    I will update with the results. Thanks for the support.
  • D_Allard
    Update: It appears to have worked, and everything appears to have been properly restored. I think that we simply panicked earlier and were not able to find the items in their proper collections.

    I'm not sure why the item I tried above failed originally or if I just made a mistake when I went looking for the file.

    Either way everything seems to be back up and running (except for a bunch of wrongly undeleted files, still nothing has been lost.

    Thanks again for all of your help.

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.