Lost citations/records

leiffredrickson
Hi,

I have just noticed that I am missing about a year of citations from my Zotero library. When I look at my records by date added, they go from about 8/12/12 to 8/29/13. So I'm missing probably several hundred or even thousand records I added in that year. Around 8/29/13 I re-installed Firefox and then updated Zotero, so I'm sure that has something to do with it.

I have some of these records cited in Word documents. If there is no way to completely restore my library, is there a way to sync my library with those documents?

Thanks

I am using Windows 7, Word 2010 and Zotero 4.0.11
  • aurimas
    When you reinstalled Firefox and updated Zotero (do you mean that you installed Zotero again, or was Zotero already there and you just clicked update?), was your Zotero library empty and you had to sync to get your items?
  • adamsmith
    edited October 24, 2013
    You can't import Zotero items from Word documents, no.

    When you re-installed Firefox, do you remember if your Zotero library was initially empty and just filled up after an initialy sync?

    Were you using Zotero for Firefox before?

    See if you can find your old Firefox profile: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Recovering%20important%20data%20from%20an%20old%20profile
    you can also try looking for an old zotero data folder, e.g. by searching your HD for zotero.sqlite
  • leiffredrickson
    I installed Zotero again. The library was empty until I synced it.
  • leiffredrickson
    I don't have any old zotero data folders (older than 8/13). I will give the firefox profile a try tomorrow. I guess I'm a little confused though as to why the records that I had saved to the zotero cloud are no longer there.
  • leiffredrickson
    I was using Zotero for Firefox before.
  • adamsmith
    Almost certainly the reason the items weren't there is because they never synced to the cloud in the first place. Might have been a sync error you didn't notice or something along those lines.
    The only two alternatives are
    1) you synced with a different Zotero username during that time or
    2) you specifically deleted those items in Zotero (which sounds like it's not the case).


    Unless it's 1) - in which case you'd want to find your other account - your only shot at getting them back is to track down the old Zotero data folder (which would be in the old Firefox profile). If it's gone and if you don't have a HD back-up that may include it from shortly before 8/29, I'm sorry to say I don't think there's a way to bring those items back.
  • leiffredrickson
    Okay, thanks, I probably did not realize it was not syncing. I will see if I can track anything down.
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