Help! My entire computer crashed last night and when I just reloaded Zotero my pretty large library of research articles for my dissertation seems to be gone. I can't find it online or when I downloaded the app. As it wasn't being stored on my hard drive, where has it gone?
Could you say more? Is this a new/cleaned hard drive, or do you still have your old files? What version of Zotero are you running now, and what do you see in the library? Were you previously using Zotero for Firefox or Zotero Standalone? What's the value of the data directory location in the Advanced → Files and Folders pane of the Zotero preferences?
This is not a new hard drive, I did a reset (Windows quit working), but saved all files. I'm on Zotero 5.0.11. In my library I only see about 4 documents from the first time I used Zotero. I had established a whole library, with 80-100 documents associated wtih my dissertation on leadership. I have been using Zotero Standalone, albeit I have also used it on FireFox and just tried to pull it up on Chrome. The data directory location currently is: C:\Users\Jennifer.DESKTOP-SF8S8O3\Zotero.
OK, so if you look in your Firefox profile directory (or the one from your backup, if that's what you're using), do you see a 'zotero' directory, and if so does it contain a larger zotero.sqlite and a 'storage' folder with more files than the one in C:\Users\Jennifer.DESKTOP-SF8S8O3\Zotero ?
In my previous comment I said I only had about 4 documents, that is not accurate, about, there is a total of about 20, but not the library that is most important to me tied to my dissertation. Does this mean something did not get sync'd?
The file size. And look in 'storage' too, which contains PDFs and webpage snapshots, to see how many there are compared to the data directory you're using now.
If you had a data directory in the default location before, it would be a 'zotero' directory in either your Firefox profile directory or your Zotero profile directory. You should check both directories. Note that there'll be a prefs.js file in each profile directory, which is how you can know if you're looking in the right place.
You can't open them (though you can open PDF/HTML files within 'storage'), but you can point Zotero at another data directory from the Advanced → Files and Folders pane of the Zotero preferences.
Make sure you have a backup of everything before proceeding.
Yeah... that's not working. I have to go to a meeting, but will re-engage with you another day, unless you have step-by-step directions that might work
You'd have to say more about what's not working. It's still not clear to me what happened to your hard drive or where your various previous files are, but basically, you have an active Zotero data directory (C:\Users\Jennifer.DESKTOP-SF8S8O3\Zotero), which might have been migrated from an earlier version of your database from Zotero Standalone or Zotero for Firefox. If you find another, more recent Zotero data directory with more data in it (which should be clear based on the files in 'storage'), if you point Zotero at it, you'll see that data. (We can deal with moving it to a better location afterward, but for now the goal is just to find your data.)
Upgrade Storage
You can't open them (though you can open PDF/HTML files within 'storage'), but you can point Zotero at another data directory from the Advanced → Files and Folders pane of the Zotero preferences.
Make sure you have a backup of everything before proceeding.
or if you prefer screenshots, this is pretty good: http://aut.ac.nz.libguides.com/zotero/backup