Lost entire library after failed sync - suggestions?

georgedarroch · March 24, 2009

I thought I'd synced. After a lot of attempts where Zotero was not reading my library, I got what appeared to be a sync to the Zotero website. Because I didn't trust the sync, I decided to copy my library to my flash drive to use on a second computer. It turned I'd forgot to delete some large files, and it didn't fit. So I cancelled the upload. And it turns out that deleted my entire library.

And then it wasn't on the server either.

I've just lost a years worth of biblio and notes data. Fool on me for not backing up in more locations, I suppose. But I thought I had at least two. I knew 1.5b would be buggy. I just didn't realise how so, in which case I would have never have used it.

Any suggestions for how to recover the data (if possible) would be gladly appreciated.

dstillman · March 25, 2009

First, it sounds like you're saying it was the file copy operation that deleted your data, not Zotero, so I'm not sure what bugginess you're referring to.

I'm also unclear how a file copy could delete files from the source drive. There have been bugs on various OSes when a failed move operation between drives would result in the loss of the source file, but I wouldn't expect this to be possible with a copy operation.

You don't say exactly what the problem is. Is it that you're now seeing an empty library when you open Zotero?

It might also be helpful to explain what you mean by "After a lot of attempts where Zotero was not reading my library".

Take a look at the Zotero data page to be sure you understand how and where your data is stored, and immediately make a backup of your entire Zotero data directory. Then examine the various zotero.sqlite files in the data directory and take note of their dates and file sizes. There should be a zotero.sqlite.bak file containing your data as of at least 12 hours ago, which you could copy into place as zotero.sqlite. Be extremely sure you have full backups of everything before moving files around.

georgedarroch · July 13, 2009

This problem has been resolved. I accidentally created a second account, and only realised this in the last week. I've since (2.0b6.2) been able to merge them successfully.