Zotero 5 and transporting Library between standalone copies of Zotero on two different machines.

huckfield

This is a continuation of a previous thread so I thought it might be best to start a new one. My issues are these:

a) Am I able to download standalone Zotero 5 without interfering with my existing Library?

b) I operate two machines in different locations, each with a copy of standalone Zotero. Anything involving the web and reverting to Firefox means complications. So how can I transport my Library between two different machines on a USB device, ensuring that this doesn't lose formatting for my collections and subcollections?

Look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.

adamsmith

a) Depends on what you mean by "interfering" -- Zotero 5 does update your library, so it does "interfere" in the strict sense, but it works stably, so it won't interfere with your ability to use Zotero.

b) Option A here, yes: https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/transferring_a_library though you using sync as bwiernik suggests in the main thread is going to be a lot more convenient, so do consider if whatever complications using the web entails may not be worth it.

huckfield

Thanks for this.

a) If I simply download Zotero 5, will this change any of the collections of subcollections in my Library?

b) my previous experience of using a USB to transfer my Library between machines is that the collection and subcollection structure has disappeared on the second machine. I'm afraid that the guidance isn't clear on this.

adamsmith

a) you'd have to say exactly what you have in mind and what you're concerned about. "Simply downloading" Zotero 5 doesn't do anything at all. Installing it updates your database. It doesn't affect your collections.

b) Copying the database does not affect collections at all. It's a 1:1 copy. Since it doesn't look like you reported the issue last time, no way of telling what happened back then.