Synced the wrong library

vbielat

I was trying to help a student out with their Zotero account. So I took my account info out of my Firefox plug-in settings and put hers in. Then I opened her cloud account, hoping to sync down from the cloud to the plug-in. I realized after I selected Sync it was working the other way, and my files got synced to her cloud.

Is there any way to recover her library right now. I've asked her to bring in her computer and NOT touch Zotero or open firefox until then. I am assuming I then bring up her Zotero on her machine (not connected to the internet), then connect to the internet and sync to the cloud again, and it should sync the local copy she has on her own computer up to the cloud and restore her files.

(I'm going to find her Zotero file on her C drive first, save a backup copy, just in case).

Does anyone have an opinion on whether this should work?

adamsmith

Instead of a regular sync, you want to use the "Restore to Zotero Server" option from the Reset tab in the Sync preferences. (Make sure you select the _to_ option. You don't want to do this in the wrong direction.)

Also, note that sync wouldn't have overwritten her library, it would have merged yours and hers, so look out for items synced to your copy of Zotero from her account. (That's why you should use the Restore option to fix this -- it will overwrite the server library with the local library).

Btw. -- didn't you get a warning? Zotero is supposed to display a warning if you switch out sync information to prevent exactly this from happening.

vbielat

Yes, I got a message, but obviously did not understand what it was telling me :)
Thank you for the information.