My library is empty - help!

maeghan turner
I had to wipe clean my hard drive and I saved my Zotero storage folder and zotero.sqlite file. I have downloaded Zotero again and added this folder and file to the Data Directory and re-started Zotero multiple times and still my library does not show up. I have not previously synced my library online so this is the only copy I have of my library. Any suggestions on how to reload my library and avoid the hours of rebuilding the library?
Thank you!
  • dstillman
    How big is the zotero.sqlite file?
  • maeghan turner
    It is 983KB
  • dstillman
    I'm afraid that's an empty database, so you likely copied that from the wrong place (or put it somewhere else and are looking at the empty database that Zotero creates automatically).
  • maeghan turner
    Ah shoot. Okay and so my storage folder has a lot of files that have articles. Is there anyway I can re-import them even if they are not categorized? Is there anything else you would suggest at this point?
  • dstillman
    You should search for other zotero.sqlite files on your computer or in your backup files to see if you can find the original DB.

    If you can't find it, close Zotero, rename Zotero to Zotero-Old, and restart Zotero to start with a clean data directory — and verify that when you then do Show Data Directory there's no 'storage' directory. You can then do a search with your OS file manager for all PDF files within the old 'storage' directory and drag them all into Zotero. Zotero will do its best to retrieve metadata for them and create parent items.

    For any it can't identify, you'd want to open them up and either look for an identifier (e.g., DOI, PMID, ISBN) that you can paste into Add Item by Identifier or copy the title and do a web search for them, save from the main article page, and drag the PDF onto the saved item. (You should temporarily disable PDF saving in the General pane of the preferences while doing this to avoid duplicating PDFs unnecessarily, but remember to turn it back on afterward.)
  • maeghan turner
    Okay I will give that a try. Thank you so much for your help.
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