How to restore a group folder accidentally deleted from the Group Library

dpparekh
Hi all,

On monday 4/20, I accidentally deleted one of the folders in my Zotero Group Library. It was synced properly but I mistakenly deleted that folder. I did not have an automatic backup of the library, however each and every file was synced with the Zotero Server. Is there some way to retrieve the entire folder. It is very important for my research work.

Any help on this problem would be highly appreciated! :)
  • aurimas
    Did you delete the collection (it's not really a folder) by right-click -> Delete Collection? Or was it right-click -> Delete Collection and Items...? If the former, then your items are still present in your library. They would be at the root of the group library and you would simply have to re-add them to a collection.

    Otherwise, did you already empty your trash? you could restore the items (though not the collection) back to your library.

    I'm afraid that there is no way for you to restore the collection structure without a library backup. If someone in your group has not synced since 4/20, then this might be possible.
  • dpparekh
    Hi aurimas,

    Thanks for the reply. I remember that I had just clicked on Delete Collection. It's good then that all the items can be traced back using the root folder. Only concern is that my group has 30 people in it which would make it a bit difficult to find and restore each and every item; but I guess it should be just fine if they are in the group's root folder as I can always cite them once I know the name of the paper I am looking for. :)

    Thanks for the help. Appreciate it! :)
  • aurimas
    Only concern is that my group has 30 people in it which would make it a bit difficult to find and restore each and every item
    Is that because only certain individuals know which items belong to which collection? Otherwise, I'm not sure what you mean.
  • silviaegt
    Is there a way to know who deleted a collection from a group library?
  • dstillman
    @silviaegt: No, sorry.
  • silviaegt
    oh dear, thanks @dstillman, I see that items of that collection are no longer in the parent directory but I did find them in the trash can (not sure if that's the name in English, in Spanish is "papelera") -- is there a way to massively restore those?
  • dstillman
    If the deletion just recently happened and you just synced the deletions to your computer, you should be able to restore from one of the last automatic backups. (If someone else in the group hasn't yet synced, they could do the same.)
  • silviaegt
    thanks again @dstillman, I just found out one of my colleagues still has the collection! However, when he exports the RDF we lose all sub-collections, is there a way to export our collection that preserves the structure?
  • dstillman
    edited May 27, 2020
    Don't export — just follow Step 5 of the instructions I linked to (ignoring the steps about the backup file, since he already has a database with the data you're looking for).
  • dstillman
    edited May 27, 2020
    @silviaegt: This, in other words:
    If you're trying to restore deleted collections, you can create duplicate collections and drag items from the old collections to the new ones. When you sync, the old collections will be deleted but the new ones will remain.
    It's possible you'll still need to restore the items from the trash after syncing, but they should be put back into the new collection that you added them to.
  • silviaegt
    @dstillman: but that would mean I would lose all the articles/notes I've added to my main collection in the last few days right? -- if there was a way to export the collection (and its hierarchy) my colleague still has, I would love to go with that...
  • dstillman
    No. That would only happen if you used the Replace Online Library option.
  • cryanking
    Chiming in that this (no undo delete for collections) is still a real headache. My last automatic backup was over a month ago. Fortunately, I was using another PC yesterday and can snag the database from there. It happened while trying to move a collection's items into subcollections, which since drag and drop copies instead of moves forces one to delete from the source.
  • dstillman
    It happened while trying to move a collection's items into subcollections, which since drag and drop copies instead of moves forces one to delete from the source.
    (You can move with a modifier key, for what it's worth.)
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