Using Zotero Export to Restore Library

jelarv

Not sure why, but 80% of my collection disappeared yesterday. Fortunately, I had exported my entire collection to an external drive the day before. So deleted the remaining 20% of the files in my corrupted collection and then imported the exported files, which worked perfectly other than the PDFs I had saved manually in my "Storage" folder, which I had to restore manually from a prior PC backup.

Zotero documentation states this is not the preferred method of restoring data, but my only other option is to go back a few months and use an outdated PC backup. What have I lost by using the method described above? Everything appears to be in my library at this point (I don't use the Microsoft Word plug-in and so that's not a concern).

Thanks!

adamsmith

It's mostly links to items cited in Word/LO and the fact that sync will duplicate items that are exported and re-imported.

Beyond that, there are some minor issues with the data -- item relations are not preserved and I think a couple of fields in less-used items types (conference papers I think?) are lost. Also, I don't think Zotero export includes the additional files for the Website snapshots, so those might not look right/not be complete.

dstillman

Just to note, though, that your old data wouldn't have "disappeared". The main possibilities are that 1) it was deleted by you or someone else with access to a synced computer, 2) you're looking on a different computer from where the data was originally created, and it wasn't fully synced, or 3) you somehow ended up with Zotero pointing at a different data directory from what you were using previously (and, again, hadn't synced).

I'm not sure how many collections and items you're referring to, but there do appear to have been a handful of deletions in your library yesterday that were synced to the online version.

jelarv

After inspecting my newly-imported library (from a recent export), I realized there were elements missing and so I decided instead to restore the entire Zotero folder from a month ago (losing a small amount of work since then, but getting my entire library back). But I didn't want to have duplicates in my online library so I went online and deleted all items and purged the files. After restoring my local Zotero folders from last month's backup, I synced with the cloud and 460 of my 482 files disappeared on my local Zotero and the cloud (and all of my collections are gone).

Why is this so complicated??? If I dont' delete items in the cloud before restoring items, I get duplicates in both places, but if I do delete them, it results in my local files being deleted upon the first sync. How do I restore my month-old back-up without getting duplicates in the cloud?

For what it's worth, somewhere in this process Zotero said my storage usage was twice as much as it had been before all this took place and so I had to upgrade to the higher plan, which I've since downgraded because I think Zotero was including everything in my trash (which I permanently deleted).

adamsmith

Turn off automatic sync. Restore from back-up locally. Then go to Preferences --> Reset --> Restore to Online library
Once that is completed, turn automatic sync back on.

Typically this is not necessary -- if no export/import is involved, just restoring the data folder and syncing is all that's needed. Even with RDF export/import, there'd have been easier way. It's typically a good idea to check in here before taking drastic steps like removing everything online (which also must have been annoying to do given the online interface).

jelarv

Thank you! On the "Reset" panel, should I also select "Reset File Sync History" to ensure it doesn't try to go to a prior version?

jelarv

Also, do I need to delete the 22 remaining files still left in the cloud?

adamsmith

No, just use the one reset option and don't delete anything in the cloud before