lost items when I reset Firefox

jodypav
I am a NEW Zotero user with very limited computer skills. When I first downloaded Zotero it kept making my Firefox stop responding. A friend suggested that I reset Firefox, which I did. But then the Zotero icon was missing so I downloaded Zotero again. All of my items show up in the My Library folder and even all my collections are there the way I had them. But, when I click on items, I get the message "The attached item could not be found. It may have been moved or deleted outside of Zotero." I have read through a number of the discussions about missing items, but honestly they are all a bit over my head (advising me to make sure I'm using the correct Firefox profile; to make sure I'm looking in the right directory; to make sure I don't have incompatible extensions, etc.) Can someone tell me in non-computer person language how I might try to retrieve my items? THANKS.
  • aurimas
    What probably happened is that when you re-downloaded Zotero, you synced it with your online database, which pulled down your library, but not your file attachments. This might have been because you didn't have file sync enabled before, you were using WebDAV sync and didn't redo the configuration properly, you were having file sync issues, or (probably not the case, but...) you were using linked file attachments and you had a relative base directory configured, but did not redo that configuration.

    In either case, if you have not made additional changes to your Zotero library, it would probably be easiest for you to restore your library from the old Zotero profile. When you reset Firefox, it should have created a folder on your desktop named something like "Old Firefox Profile". Inside this folder you will find a "zotero" directory, which will contain at least a "zotero.sqlite" file and a "storage" directory. You will want to restore the contents of the "zotero" directory to your current Zotero profile directory. See https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#restoring_your_zotero_library_from_a_backup1
  • jodypav
    Thank you for responding. I did add a lot of stuff to my Zotero library before I realized that my earlier stuff wasn't there. Do I just need to choose whether to lose the old items or the new? Is there any relatively easy way to salvage both? Thanks again.
  • aurimas
    You can try copying the contents of the "storage" folder to your "storage" folder in the current Zotero data directory.

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