Upgrade StorageLatest suggestions for easy Mendeley import? (preserving notes & tags; moving all to new computer)
On an older laptop (Windows 7), I have both an old version of Mendeley (version 1.17.12) and Zotero desktop. I want to export Mendeley to Zotero and then move everything to my newer laptop (Win 10), switching to Zotero only (although I'm not sure if I need to do it in two steps). I have data in that Zotero library already as well. My old but important references in Mendeley include notes (not sure if that's the same thing as annotations), tags, and highlighting; I care most about not losing the tags, if that matters, but ideally notes can be retained as well. Has anything changed recently that might make this transition possible/easier? The instructions say I should import WITHOUT upgrading because of the encryption issues in later versions. However, it also sounds like I'll lose my tags and notes if I DON'T upgrade because Mendeley supposedly supports bulk export of all of that now since version v1.19.4-dev3 (although I still wasn't sure based on your info here, https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/mendeley_import, nor am I sure about Tags.).
Which should I do? If I "upload" to Mendeley (I'm not sure how that differs from syncing), would that save everything despite my notes not being private (if I understand correctly)? Or would the 3rd party option be worthwhile, given that most of what I'm worried about losing are Tags and Notes (I usually entered notes in the "notes" box, not on the PDF itself). Obviously this is all complicated by my needing to transfer everything to a new computer, not just Zotero. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Which should I do? If I "upload" to Mendeley (I'm not sure how that differs from syncing), would that save everything despite my notes not being private (if I understand correctly)? Or would the 3rd party option be worthwhile, given that most of what I'm worried about losing are Tags and Notes (I usually entered notes in the "notes" box, not on the PDF itself). Obviously this is all complicated by my needing to transfer everything to a new computer, not just Zotero. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Notes and tags are imported fine. "Annotations" are the sticky notes you add to PDFs — those are extracted and transferred as notes but don't remain in the PDFs. PDF highlights are not transferred automatically, so to keep those you'd need to follow one of the suggestions on the linked page.
You can transfer your Zotero database to the newer computer easily later, so don't worry about that for now.