The selected data directory is too old to be used with this version of Zotero.

dstillman

This discussion was created from comments split from: Collections and subcollections don't show up.

Emily2020

I quit Zotero and Chrome again and restarted my Mac. When i tried to open Zotero I got this message: "The selected data directory is too old to be used with this version of Zotero. Please first upgrade the data directory using Zotero 4.0 for Firefox or use a different directory."

So I downloaded and installed Firefox (I use Chrome). Then I went to https://www.zotero.org/download and tried to install Zotero 4.0 for Firefox. I got an error message: "www.zotero.org The add-on downloaded from this site could not be installed because it appears to be corrupt." Also, I'd like to use an alias and not have my real name visible in the forum. Thanks.

dstillman

(It's best to start new threads for new issues. The thread you posted to was many years old and unrelated to your issue.)

You'd get this error if you were last using an extremely old version of Zotero (like, 6 years old, if not more) and then upgraded to Zotero 5. If you don't think that's the case, it's possible something happened to your active Zotero data directory and Zotero ended up finding a very old data directory elsewhere on your system.

Then I went to https://www.zotero.org/download and tried to install Zotero 4.0 for Firefox.

You would want Zotero Standalone 4.0, not Zotero 4.0 for Firefox, but first it would be good to confirm that you were actually using a very old version of Zotero. If you don't think that's the case, you would want to check the current data directory location in the Advanced → Files and Folders pane of the Zotero preferences and look for other zotero.sqlite files elsewhere on your system to see if somehow the connection to your previous data directory was lost.

Also, I'd like to use an alias and not have my real name visible in the forum.

You can change that from your account settings. When you go to change your username, there's an option to use a different name for the forums.

dstillman

Copying an earlier message of yours from the other thread:

Copied my zotero folder and its contents from my old computer (Win xP) to my new Mac running Catalina. I can see my collection folders online, but nothing in my Mac stand-alone version. Report ID: 568443763

Steps to reproduce:
1. Copy old Zotero folder to correct location /users/mynamehere/Zotero
2. Quit Zotero and Chrome
3. restart Mac and Zotero stand-alone
4. When I click on the brown My Library folder, I get a message: Welcome to Zotero! but my collections are not there.
5. When I go online, they are all there.

Note: I have not used Zotero for a few years, but I did not remove anything.
How do I access my collections? The Zotero folder I copied to my Mac has all the pdf articles that are not online, so I need to be able to access them.

I'm guessing you weren't putting things in the right place here and then figured it out and got the "too old to be used with this version of Zotero" message above once the files were in the correct locations.

So then, yes, this is expected coming from a very old database, and you need to open the database in Zotero Standalone 4.0 first to upgrade it before installing Zotero 5.

Emily2020

I had not used Zotero for about 6-7 years. Frankly, I was impressed to see that the online version still had all my references ship-shape. Thanks very much for the quick response. I'll install Standalone 4.0 on my old machine and update the data directory there, then copy over the updated Zotero folder to my new Mac running Zotero 5.

Emily2020

Seems to have worked perfectly. Thank you.