How to restore zotero library after firefox resetting

mohasan

Hi everyone,

I reset my Firefox to its default state - Firefox recommends you do this when the browser is not working properly. As indicated in the Firefox website, I went to the Help menu, then clicked on "troubleshooting information" and there I clicked "reset Firefox."

After resetting Firefox my zotero library is gone but one "old Firefox file" is automatically generated in my desktop.

Now I have installed a new zotero and it is working fine but
I don't know how to restore my old zotero library (It contains many bibliographies)

I'm frustrating a lot. Plz.plz. help me in this regard.

(It would be better to give stepwise instruction to resolve, too much text is not expected)

Thanks in advance.


Kind regards
Mehedi

adamsmith

Follow these instructions:
https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#restoring_your_zotero_library_from_a_backup
treat the "Old firefox" files like a backup.

mohasan

Thanks smith, I will try it and inform you

mohasan

Dear Smith,
I just follow the instruction below but my zotero is still blank.

"Open the Advanced pane of the Zotero preferences and click “Show Data Directory”. This should reveal a directory containing zotero.sqlite and possibly a 'storage' subdirectory. Close Firefox or Zotero Standalone and move zotero.sqlite and 'storage' from this folder into a temporary folder on your desktop. Next, copy — don't move — zotero.sqlite and 'storage' from your backup into the active data directory. When you now reopen Firefox or Zotero Standalone, your Zotero library should be restored"

I'm confused about "active data directory" what is that? show data directory and active data directory are the same?

I just moved zotero.sqlite and 'storage'folder into a temporary folder on my desktop. Next to that, copied zotero.sqlite and 'storage' from my backup to the "show data directory" instead of "active data directory" but still empty?

How can I resolve this ?

Thanks

aurimas

The directory that opens when you click "Show Data Directory" is the "active data directory". (I'll clarify this in the documentation)

Could you list all the zotero.sqlite, zotero.sqlite.bak, etc. files that are in your "Old Firefox Profile" folder? Include their sizes and Last Modified timestamps.

mohasan

Thanks for help. Now it is working fine and I successfully restored my old library after a lots of trial and error. Life is not so easy. Reality is very difficult

wyoangel

I have tried and tried to follow these instructions. I too did the fatal thing and reset Firefox. My entire sets of libraries (hours of research have disappeared). My system was set to sync and I watched it do this all the time. I believe I had a standalone version with the plug in for Firefox. I have been using Word. Granted I have run into issues with this program correctly posting in my paper, however that is minor for the amount of time it has saved. But at this point I am in tears thinking I will have to retrace and rebuild hours of work. I don't need this in my stage of work. I have gone to the old Firefox data in my documents. I located the file for zotero here. This is what is in there:
locate 9/21/14, styles 9/21/14, translators 9/21/14, zotero.sqlite 5/15/13 1040KB, zotero.sqlite.1.bak 5/14/13 1040kb, zotero.sqlite.bak 5/15/13 1040kb there is no folder labeled storage. Please tell me that I haven't lost everything. At this point I am just ready to quit. Too many issues with getting this paper going.

adamsmith

Start here: https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#where_did_my_items_go
Firefox almost certainly created a folder with your old profile.
The folder you´re telling use about here is entirely empty (1MB is an empty database) so you´re likely looking in the wrong space.

If you're really certain it there is no other "Old Firefox" folder on your computer _and_ opening Standalone also doesn´t show your data, click on "My Library" at the top of this page. See if your library is there (i.e. on the Zotero server). If it is, simply sync to get it back:
https://www.zotero.org/support/sync

wyoangel

adamsmith\ I would like to make a suggestion that you direct folks back to the Firefox profiles of finding the previous version. This is where I actually found the help I needed. Your sending people to a place on Zotero that doesn't give a good description of where to actually look or what to click. I had more assistance from my University's library. Also many of the above comments stated they finally recovered after doing other trials and errors. SO perhaps a redirection to Firefox should be considered when someone is mentioning a reset. It appears to me that the same directions are continuously given. Just my penny's worth. Again, help people redirect into their previous Firefox profile.

adamsmith

which instructions at Firefox are you referring to exactly?

Rob Warren

None of the above was helpful for me, and I'm a software engineer. I'm sure I'll solve it, but some straightforward directions in plain English would be great.

Just say'n...

aurimas

I'm not sure what you find so confusing. Resetting Firefox takes your Firefox profile directory and places it on the Desktop. It then creates a new profile. If you had your Zotero data directory at the default location (which is inside the Firefox profile directory), your data would have been moved to the Desktop into the Old Firefox Profile directory. If you can't restore it from that location, then you either had your directory somewhere else or you're doing something wrong.

adamsmith

As a software engineer, I'm sure you can appreciate that "none of the above was helpful" is, well, rather unhelpful.
If something isn't clear, ask specific questions and we'll be happy to help and, if possible, improve the documentation. But the basics are really straightforward: When you reset Firefox, it creates a back-up of your old profile, usually on the desktop. That contains your Zotero folder. You can treat that folder like you would a Zotero back-up and restore from it. We have a link to a step-by-step with images for that step in the documentation I link to in my first post.

Rob Warren

#1. Open folder Desktop/Old Firefox Data/xxxxxx.default and locate the Zotero Folder
#2. Locate the Firefox profile folder, which should be something like:
C:\Users\Your Name\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxx.default-[long-value-random-number-here]
#3 Replace the Zotero Folder in #2 with the Zotero Folder in #1. In case you are dyslexic and might overwrite your original backup or mess up the above in some way, make a copy of it first before executing the move.

#4. Note: the most important file is the sqlite database file.

Hope that helps

Rob Warren

Adam...It took me a few minutes to find a solution, which I duly posted above.

dstillman

The page that adamsmith linked to at the top of the page provides (what we believe to be) clear, simple, cross-platform instructions for this. Again, if there's something you found confusing, you'd have to tell us what it is, or this is just a waste of time.

adamsmith

maybe the old profile part of this? We could probably make that more explicit, i.e. under https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#where_did_my_items_go say something like "If you reset your Firefox... " and then link to the restore from back-up instructions from there?

edit: but yeah, it would really help to know which part wasn't clear.

arash.amirkhany

Hi everyone,
I tried everything above. But, My library is not back ... in the Old Firefox Data\xyz.default\zotero folder I don't have any storage. I noticed Rob mentioned that the most important file is the sqlite database file.

I have zotero.sqlite (1,012KB) , zotero.sqlite1 (1,002KB), and zotero.sqlite2 (1,012KB)


I copied all three to my active data directory. But I'm still missing my stuff.
I really appreciate a solution.
Cheers,

adamsmith

That's the size of an empty database, so those wouldn't help. Is that the only Zotero folder in your older Firefox data profile?

dstillman

@arash.amirkhany: Yes, those are empty databases, so you'll have to search your hard drive for your previous data directory. It's possible you were using a custom data directory before, in which case the setting might've been lost after the reset and you'd have to point Zotero back to the correct location in the Zotero preferences.

dstillman

(If there's a prefs.js file in the Old Firefox Data folder, you can open that in a text editor and look for extensions.zotero.dataDir/lastDataDir.)

arash.amirkhany

Thanks for the prompt reply adamsmith. Yes that's the only one.
I think I found the storage though. I just searched my computer for "storage". The folder is located in My Documents. I might have changed the directory location manually.
Thanks again - also the stuff above including yours are super helpful!

Update: Awesome just checked extensions.zotero.dataDir/lastDataDir and it directs me to the same location.

DWL-SDCA

I haven't seen this mentioned and maybe this has already been tested and found to be safe.

Mac Siera now places the Documents and Desktop directories in the cloud. Are these OK as places to house the Zotero database?

bwiernik

That's a good point. Storing the directory there will have similar problems as storing it in Dropbox or any other cloud server. Best to store it in ~/Zotero (which I believe is the default in Zotero 5.0).

wavemaker

What if you removed your complete Firefox folder to clean up ;-(. Is there a possibility to restore the local database from the zotero.org database?

bwiernik

If you log in to Zotero.org and click on My Library, do you see your items there? If so, just install Zotero on your computer and set up Sync in the Preferences.

wavemaker

Thanks! Indeed it seems that my library is intact. Will try resynchronising this evening.