Accidental "paste" command instead of "copy" - how to retrieve my missing information

wertyo102 · December 15, 2015

I was trying to copy a note I'd made on an article, which contained all the things I'd taken down while reading it, but a slip of my finger led me to hit paste instead of copy and now I've lost the original text and can't get it back, no matter how many times I press "undo". Is there any way I can retrieve the accidentally replaced text? I spent a long time reading and taking notes on that article and now I've lost all my information on it. Please help, if anyone knows a solution. I am incredibly distraught that I lost all that work in a single keystroke.

dstillman · December 15, 2015

1) Temporarily disable auto-sync from the Sync pane of the Zotero preferences.

2) Check to see if the note is online.

3) If not, you may be able to temporarily revert to your last automatic backup, copy the note from there, and then switch back to the latest database.

wertyo102 · December 15, 2015

Thanks for the help, but my auto-sync was on and updated the online library as soon as I made the mistake, and for some reason it appears my last automatic update was today, after the time of the error, so I don't think it can be restored unless there's some way to reach old backups from earlier dates. I appreciate the advice, though!