Error message when I open Zotero stand alone

A writer

Hello,

I am writing with a question about a Zotero error message.

Everytime I open Zotero standalone, I get the follow dialog box:

"Zotero found a previous data directory within your Firefox profile directory, last modified on 8/26/2017. If items or files are missing from Zotero that were present in Zotero for Firefox, your previous data directory may not have been properly migrated to the new default location in /Users/harrisberger/Zotero.

Do you wish to continue using the current data directory or switch to the previous one?

If you switch, your current data directory will be moved to /Users/harrisberger/Zotero-Old, and the previous directory will be migrated to /Users/harrisberger/Zotero."

When I get this, I always choose "Use Current Directory."

Here is the context: For years I used Zotero for Firefox, which I sync on several desktop machines through Zotero's servers. For unrelated reasons, I decided to stop using Firefox, and so I started to use the Zotero standalone app. It appears that my almost 2K citations synced just fine, and I used the app without any error messages for a few days. Now, everytime I open the app, I get this warning.

Does anyone know when I am getting this message? Is it safe to check "Don't ask me again"?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Best,

Harry

dstillman

It's not clear to me whether you were using Zotero Standalone before 5.0. If so, it sounds like you had it create a new data directory instead of sharing your existing Firefox one. Otherwise, it's possible your existing Firefox data directory wasn't properly migrated, as the message says, and you synced your data down to an empty library instead. (Zotero would've warned you about that.)

In any case, if you're happy with the items and files you have in Zotero (i.e., in your data directory in ~/Zotero), you should (back up and) delete the old data directory in the Firefox profile directory rather than clicking "Don't ask me again". If you're missing items or files (because they hadn't fully synced to your online library before you switched to a new data directory), you'd want to switch to the Firefox one.

A writer

Thanks for all of this. When I first started using Zotero, I experimented with the stand alone app in version 4. When I recently switched to the standalone app, I used version 4 briefly and then upgraded to version 5. Is there any way to confirm that the migration was done properly?

A writer

One more thing: I imagine that I will use the Firefox version of the app occasionally. Should I have the Firefox version of the app use the default directory of the standalone app? If so, could you tell me how to do that? I opened both versions, and it appears that they are the same. (Both versions sync to the same web account, they have the same number of items, and the first and last items are identical.) Thanks!

LiborA

For Firefox is only available Zotero 4.Standalone Zotero is in version 5. These two versions of Zotero use a different data structure in the local database. So you can't use Zotero 4 for Firefox and Standalone Zotero 5 with the same data directory. But you can sync it to the same web account. That is no problem yet

A writer

That's good to know. So it sounds like I should just back up and delete the Firefox profile. If I do that, though, won't it just create another one the next time I open Firefox Zotero?

dstillman

You want to install the Zotero Connector for Firefox first, which doesn't access the disk itself. (It just communicates with Zotero or zotero.org.)

Once you install the Zotero Connector for Firefox, it will replace Zotero for Firefox, and you can delete the old 'zotero' directory. (And to be clear, you're only deleting the 'zotero' directory in the Firefox profile, not the Firefox profile itself.)

We'll be pushing the connector out as an upgrade for Zotero for Firefox users, but if you've already installed Zotero 5.0, you should install the connector manually now.

A writer

Thank you! This worked perfectly.