Retrieving deleted group folders

Hi there,
Somehow the folders in a shared group have become deleted. Is there any way to retrieve them?
Many thanks,
Jo
  • edited October 12, 2021
    If they're deleted, someone deleted them by mistake. If this just happened (or someone in the group hadn't yet synced the changes and just did), you should be able to restore from one of the automatic backups.
  • Thanks so much for the reply. Is it possible to do this selectively -- i.e. just for one group library at a time? This could have happened any time in the last year.
  • Yes, but again, it's only possible if someone just synced the deletions to their computer. The automatic backups only go back a couple days.
  • Is there any way to figure out who deleted the folders?
  • Not currently, sorry.
  • Howdy again. I've found a backup from May on an old machine. The May backup that has the deleted folders.

    I'm trying the method in the link -- deleting the zotero.sqlite, using the zotero.sqlite.bak as the new zotero.sqlite. I'm standing by to see what happens.

    Here's my concern I don't want this process to overwrite any new articles or new folders I've created in other groups since May, when this backup was created. Will the synch somehow aggregate these rescued folders and new folders?

    Or do I need to do something in particular to target the groups/folders that I want saved?
  • Update: the method described above ("deleting the zotero.sqlite, using the zotero.sqlite.bak as the new zotero.sqlite" then synching with the cloud) results in the old folders being deleted again. Help!
  • You have to follow the instructions I linked to above, which explain how to preserve changes through the sync.
  • I'm sorry, Dan -- I'm trying to follow directions but there are so many different articles in that link, and I can't figure out which one applies to deleted folders. Which heading should I be looking at?
  • edited October 22, 2021
    The link is to a specific section, "Restoring From the Last Automatic Backup". It has specific instructions for restoring deleted collections.

    The section Restoring Your Zotero Data From a Backup and Overwriting Synced Changes has the same steps. Whether you use an automatic backup or your own backup, the point is just that you need to follow the step that says "If you were using syncing and the undesired changes were already synced, syncing now would cause the more recent data in the online library to replace the data you just restored, and you'll need to take steps to prevent that…".
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