Restoe from backup of the "storage" folder only, without SQLITE file - please help! - please help
Dear all,
I have formatted my laptop several times recently. I always backed up my Zotero library by copying the "storage" folder without even knowing about the SQlite file. Unfortunately I only did what I do for Calibre Ebook management and did not read the detailed instructions.
The restore did work the last time by simply pasting the files into the new Zotero folder after I formatted the PC. However this time it did not work. I have over 1300 articles backed up in the form of the former Zotero "storage" folder without the sqlite file or Mozilla folders. I am trying all I can, even reinstalling Mozilla and Zotero, but nothing helps. The copy-and-paste is not working this time.
Could you please help? I am desperate! Thank you very much, Hana
I have formatted my laptop several times recently. I always backed up my Zotero library by copying the "storage" folder without even knowing about the SQlite file. Unfortunately I only did what I do for Calibre Ebook management and did not read the detailed instructions.
The restore did work the last time by simply pasting the files into the new Zotero folder after I formatted the PC. However this time it did not work. I have over 1300 articles backed up in the form of the former Zotero "storage" folder without the sqlite file or Mozilla folders. I am trying all I can, even reinstalling Mozilla and Zotero, but nothing helps. The copy-and-paste is not working this time.
Could you please help? I am desperate! Thank you very much, Hana
Did you sync your Zotero library? http://www.zotero.org/support/sync
that would allow you to just sync it back to your formatted PC.
Otherwise, and if you really don't have any other back-up of your old harddisk I don't see an alternative to re-creating your library.
thank you very much for such a quick reaction!
Yes, I did sync Zotero but not sure it was synced at the time when I downloaded this huge quantity of articles that I want to restore (I think my free Zotero account could not even contain them all).
No, I have no other copy of my hard drive, I copied the "storage" folder and pasted it onto the removable USB drive, then formatted the PC...
I am afraid I will have to restore my library by hand. But thanks anyway. Please let me know if you have any ideas about how to make the restore the fastest possible - re-download the bibliographies and then join the PDFs by hand..? (I no longer have access to the database where I downloaded them from). Thanks!
For items for which you don't have data, drag the PDFs to Zotero, right click and retrieve metadata. Depending on what type of PDFs we're looking at that should work pretty well.
If you still have items that you're missing, let us know, there might be some tricks to bring your library up to date with your storage directory.
The copy-paste trick did work last time (at least I think so), but it did not this time... Any ideas?
1. Use mronkko's Perl script from https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/9091/orphaned-attachment-files/#Item_8 but change the line at the bottom from
rmtree(["$zoterostoragefiles/$_"]);
tomove("$zoterostoragefiles/$_", "<some_temporary_location>/$_");
and adduse File::Copy;
next to the other use statements at the top. Also <some_temporary_location> should be a path to a folder you create. Running this script would then (in theory) copy all orphaned PDF attachments to this temporary directory.2. Drag-drop all of the PDFs from the temporary directory (in Windows for example, use a search in File Explorer to look for .pdf) into Zotero (maybe a new collection to make things easier). Select all PDFs in Zotero (Ctrl + A), right-click and run Retrieve Metadata. Fill in metadata for items that didn't get retrieved automatically by hand (or re-add from websites, which may be easier).
thank you very much for your support! I did in fact first paste the content of the Storage folder and only then synced. I will do it again and let you know, however I remember that I had articles in Zotero that I cannot see now. I am afraid I will have to do this by hand. Anyway, some attachments have gone lost so I hope the pasting will retrieve them.