Unable to uninstall Zotero completely or to install it again

Gabriellepicard

Hi,

I had zotero for 1 year and today, I tried to open Zotero and some weird message opened. So I decided to uninstall my zotero (in the firefox tool bar and in my computer). After, I tried to download it again, but I tried to open the new version, it's written (my translation french-english)that the version of Zotero that I just download is older than the one I used before and that I should do an update. My actual version is 4.0.19 and it's the only one. I don't understand what I should do. I'm not sure if I had Zotero Standalone or for firefox and I'm using a MAC 10.9.2

Thank you,

Gabrielle

dstillman

If you're getting this message, you most likely had Multilingual Zotero installed previously. It's not possible to switch back to official Zotero using the same database, so you'll have to reinstall MLZ.

fbennett

Gabrielle,

Hi. I'm the maintainer of Multilingual Zotero (MLZ). As Dan Stillman says, it's likely that you had MLZ installed previously, and that your fresh installation of official Zotero is blocking because the database format of the two is a little different.

If you can confirm that this is your situation, the simplest thing to do is to reinstall MLZ, as Dan suggests. If you prefer to go back to official Zotero, post a note here and I can walk you through the steps.

Gabriellepicard

Wow, I really am the worst with computers. Thank you both for your help, I really appreciate it. I really want to return to the old Zotero if possible.(I don't even remember how I manage to install the MLZ in the first place) Fbennett, I would be so grateful if you could walk me through steps :)

aurimas

Have you synced your entire library to zotero.org? Check here: https://www.zotero.org/Gabriellepicard/items

If you have, then you could delete your current library (after making backups), Zotero would recreate an empty library, and then you could sync your library down from zotero.org.

If you have not synced (or not synced your most recent changes), you would probably want to re-install MLZ and then continue using it or sync and proceed with the above steps.

Either way, we can give you more detailed instructions if you let us know the status of your online library.

adamsmith

"delete your current library" is not a good way of saying this.

You'd want to move your zotero data folder: https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data
to a different location. On restart, Zotero will then create an empty library. Apart from that follow aurimas's instructions.