Help! "My Library" has become mistakenly way too large and needs to be reset!

LubnaRashid

After a series of synchronizations and data file uploads, "My Library" has become incredibly large and is crashing every time I try to use Zotero (and crashes my entire computer). The library currently has >100k entries, most of which are duplicates or at least completely irrelevant to my needs. I am trying to find a way to completely delete the contents of "My Library" and start fresh (while maintaining my group libraries). Could someone help with that?
I currently cannot even open Zotero on my laptop (installed version) as it crashes upon opening.

adamsmith

Are all the group libraries synced? Is My Library with the excess items?

LubnaRashid

Hey Adam. Yes the group libraries should all be synced and only My Library is the one overwhelmed with too many excess items...

adamsmith

Sorry the last part of my question wasn't clear -- are the excess items in "My Library" synced or not? In other words, if you could just make tabula rasa and start with what's online, would that work or would you likely run into the same problem because all those items are online, too?

LubnaRashid

Oh yes all those items are synced as well; I have the same problem both online and on my desktop version hence it has been impossible to delete them!!!
Thanks for reaching out by the way and I hope this clarifies your question.

dstillman

When you say it crashes on open, what exactly do you mean? Is Zotero actually quitting, or is it just freezing? If the latter, how long have you waited for it to load?

LubnaRashid

It freezes and doesn't load back. I have tried tens of times already. I keep on waiting and waiting then I get a box saying "zotero is not responding" and I have to force-close it.

I really just want to clear out My Library completely. Is there no way to easily do that?

dstillman

To be clear, just because you get a message saying it's not responding, it doesn't mean that you have to force-close it. That's just the OS warning you that a program is using a lot of CPU without being responsive. If you let it continue, it still may load eventually. It could easily take 30 minutes or more to load a very large library on a computer that's not powerful enough.

In any case, if you really want to start over, do this:

1) Close Zotero.

2) Rename your entire Zotero data directory from "Zotero" to "Zotero Old".

3) Reopen Zotero. If syncing is enabled, you should get a warning that you have an empty data directory, and it will ask you if you really want to sync. Cancel instead.

4) Go to the Sync → Reset pane of the Zotero preferences and use Replace Online Library, for My Library only.

That should overwrite your online library with the empty local library, deleting all your data online. It might take a while.

This shouldn't affect your group libraries.

If any part of this doesn't go the way I'm describing, let me know — I'm doing this from memory.

dstillman

Also, to be clear, this will cause you to lose any local changes in your group libraries that haven't yet synced. But the remote group data shouldn't be affected.

LubnaRashid

Thank you! I will try this tomorrow...
By the way, I have waited for over 20 minutes (or more) a couple of times and Zotero still wouldn't respond. It freezes upon opening before even clicking any buttons or attempting to do anything! This is why I am not sure if your recommendation would work at all, as it first needs Zotero to start in the first place :) I am using a laptop with 16G RAM.

dstillman

This is why I am not sure if your recommendation would work at all, as it first needs Zotero to start in the first place

No it doesn't. You're moving your old data directory out of the way before starting Zotero.

LubnaRashid

Ohhhh I see now! Awesome! Thanks will give this a try :)

LubnaRashid

It worked! Thanks a ton!

dstillman

So if you’re all set with what you see in Zotero, you can delete the “Zotero Old” folder.

LubnaRashid

Done! Thanks again!