Missing collections

sdflewrit783
I see this was discussed a couple of times before but without a resolution?

In one of our groups, all collections are gone. There are quite a few users there and mistakes are possible but it seems unlikely anybody would delete all collections in one go.

Is there something we can do to check and/or restore?

Thanks.
  • dstillman
    What's the group id (visible in the URL when viewing online)?
  • sdflewrit783
    edited March 16, 2022
    4612697
  • dstillman
    They were all deleted by someone in the group from the web library a few hours ago. If you email support@zotero.org with a link to this thread we can provide the name.

    If you act quickly, anyone in the group should be able to recover them from the last automatic backup. (A future version of Zotero will make it possible to restore deleted collections from the trash.)
  • dstillman
    It looks like the person left the group. I'd guess they were trying to remove the group from Zotero and deleted all the collections by mistake.
  • sdflewrit783
    This might kill some recent edits, I presume? Also, we have quite a few groups all with different users. Will not restoring in this way mess up all groups, possibl? If so, this is far too risky and it will be impossible to notice all changes.

    It is a relatively new group so we might just continue without. Is there a way to peep into the structure? I see the collections in DB Broswer but not sure how to know what group they belong to.

    Generally, better backup and restore would be great, per group especially as one does not want to touch research groups when students invariably mess things up in their groups. Some version control would be even better but I understand that this is not your typical audience...
  • dstillman
    This might kill some recent edits, I presume?
    No. The section I linked to explains the process for restoring collections by duplicating them and then letting more recent changes propagate to the backup.
  • sdflewrit783
    Yes, see them in the older backup in the DB Browser. Is there any way to only import collections and only to this group? I could try on a separate copy, disconnected, maybe?
  • dstillman
    Just see the section I linked to.
  • sdflewrit783
    "No. The section I linked to explains the process for restoring collections by duplicating them and then letting more recent changes propagate to the backup."

    Does it? Back to reading. :)
  • sdflewrit783
    Got it, I think. Too scary to try. I think this time we shall just live with the damage. I do not want to make a mistake and mess up our reserach library and other groups.
  • dstillman
    edited March 16, 2022
    If you think it's scary, you're just misunderstanding the process. You're not overwriting anything whatsoever. All you're doing is duplicating collections in the backup, and then all changes that have been made since the backup are pulled down from the online library. Syncing a backup is no different from syncing a computer that hasn't been synced since the time of the backup, which obviously wouldn't wipe out data online — it would just pull down more recent changes.

    It sounds like you're thinking of the Replace Online Library function, which overwrites the online library with the local library.
  • sdflewrit783
    And what if my timestamps are wrong or some such? But understood, thanks for the clarification.
  • dstillman
    Nothing to do with timestamps. Syncing doesn't work that way. Again, syncing a computer that hasn't been synced in a while obviously doesn't wipe out the online library.
  • sdflewrit783
    @dstillman "A future version of Zotero will make it possible to restore deleted collections from the trash"

    Not v6 by the looks? By the way, congratulations on the release.
Sign In or Register to comment.