Moving material from one Zotero profile to another

AucMGris

I have a Zotero profile that is becoming rather overburdened. It contains material from a number of relatively independent projects, so I am considering creating project-focused profiles. If I do:

1. Is there a way for me to move material from the current default profile to a new project-oriented profile?

2. Since there will be some overlap between the profiles, is there a way for me to copy (not move) material from one profile to another?

3. Is there an easy way to choose to which profile material is saved or even to save it to multiple profiles? From what I've read of the documentation, it would seem that there isn't.

dstillman

If you don't mind resetting Date Added and possibly losing or changing a field here and there, you can simply export to Zotero RDF and import into the library in the other profile.

Otherwise, you'd want to move via an intermediate group that accounts in both profiles were members of.

In either case, you'd lose citation links in existing word processor documents. (It might be possible to preserve those when going via the group, but it'd likely be complicated.)

3. Is there an easy way to choose to which profile material is saved or even to save it to multiple profiles?

https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/multiple_instances

For what it's worth, I would strongly recommend just using separate group libraries rather than trying to use multiple profiles.

AucMGris

Thanks for the rapid response and for the tip re separate group libraries. I'll look into that.

AucMGris

One other thought. Instead of an intermediate group, it seems to me that I could just copy-paste the material from the default profile to the new profile as I would for a restore from backup and then in the new profile delete material as appropriate. What do you think?

dstillman

You can do that if the library hasn't ever been synced. If it has, and you will want to sync them with separate accounts, that won't work. (This will likely change at some point, but for now in order to switch sync accounts you need to delete the local library.)

AucMGris

Thanks for this. Very helpful. The current library has not yet been synched, so I'll create the new profiles I need and then synch one or more of those new profiles as required. Much appreciated.

AucMGris

In moving ahead with the approach described above, I've found that my default profile has many unfiled items. I have no idea how I created them. The only thing that I can think of is that I deleted a number of subcollections without using Delete Collection and Items and that some of the items in the deleted subcollections (or in subcollections below them in the subcollection hierarchy) were not contained in any other subcollection hierarchy. Could this be the case? Is there any other way that I could have created unfiled items? Because I'd like to avoid doing that in the future.

Also, the way that I plan to tailor the new, focused profiles that I have created is to use a copy of my current default Zotero dataset as the initial dataset for each new profile. I would then in each new profile delete all the collections that do not correspond to its focus. But this raises the question of exactly what does Delete Collection and Items do?

If it deletes items only if they appear solely in the deleted collection and/or in one or more of the subcollections hierarchically below that collection, then great. Using Delete Collection and Items is the way to go. But if it deletes all the items that appear either in the deleted collection or in any subcollection below the deleted collection in the subcollection hierarchy, regardless of where else those items may appear, then it won't work for me.

One kluge might be, I suppose, to delete just the collection and not its items and then to delete all the unfiled items that this produces. But this seems a bit crude.

So, three questions: What does Delete Collection and Items in fact delete? If it deletes all items in the deleted collection and the subcollections hierarchically below the deleted collection regardless of where else those items appear a) does my kluge work? and b) is there a better way than that kluge to accomplish the same goal?

Thanks!

dstillman

But this raises the question of exactly what does Delete Collection and Items do?

Pretty much just what it says — it deletes the collection and all items in the collection. It has nothing to do with any other collections below or outside. There's only one copy of each item in your library, so if you delete an item (or move it to the trash, as this technically does), it's gone from everywhere else in the library.

If you just delete the collection, the item remains anywhere else in the library.

dstillman

Oh, maybe I see what you're asking — and what I said above is wrong. You're saying, if you have top-level Collection A with Item 1 and Subcollection B with Item 2, and Item 2 exists in top-level Collection C as well, and you use "Delete Collection and Items" on Collection A, will Item 2 be deleted from the library?

Yes, it will. You're completely deleting that collection and all collections below it, and all items in all collections below it are also deleted, regardless of wherever else they exist.

dstillman

One kluge might be, I suppose, to delete just the collection and not its items and then to delete all the unfiled items that this produces. But this seems a bit crude.

If you really don't ever have unfiled items you want, that would be fine.

AucMGris

Very helpful. Many thanks. I now know what I have to do.

One thought in this regard. For me (and perhaps others?), a command that would delete a collection and all subcollections below it in its hierarchy and _only_ those items that were unique to the deleted collection and subcollections would be quite helpful. This would ensure that items that were used in non-deleted collections (and so were likely useful to the user in contexts other than those of the deleted collection and subcollections) would be retained while those that were clearly no longer valuable (i.e., those in the deleted collection and subcollections) would not show up as unfiled and so have to be culled individually.

In general, I don't deliberately create unfiled items, and when I do, I put them in my own ToFile folder. So, for me this cull of the unfiled folder is relatively easy now that I know that it must be done, since it's basically a mass delete. (Well it will be once I've cleaned out my currently accidentally bulging unfiled folder.) But, still, it would be cleaner and quicker if there were a dedicated command for this.

For Zotero users who do want to create and retain unfiled items, such a command could be a godsend, since right now they must either delete items they want to retain or instead do a manual search through the unfiled items folder to find and delete those that they no longer need.

dstillman

Here's a way to do this if you do keep some items unfiled: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/78675/delete-collection-and-items-that-belong-only-to-that-collection

AucMGris

Thanks for this. I'll stick with my special purpose ToFile folder approach, but it's good to know that there are other solutions.

And even more thanks for your continued interest in users' problem and your general helpfulness. I really appreciate it, and I'm sure that others do, too.