Sync: deleted local folder accidentally

mondouma
Dear Zotero community,

I just made a small mistake: I deleted in my local computer a whole subfolder (in a group library) by accident. I minimized the damaged and managed to avoid syncing with the unwanted changes. If I check in the web version the folder is still there.

Now, I would like to restore that subfolder correctly in my local computer. What would be the correct procedure? I essence, I want Zotero to consider that the online version is the right one, not my local version.

I have looked up this, but I'm under the impression that this is too much (nuclear option) for what I need.
https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/sync_reset_options

Any thoughts? Many thanks!
  • adamsmith
    Definitely don't use any of the reset options, which won't work for you here.

    Do you happen to have another computer synced with your account? That'd make this easier.
  • mondouma
    yes, well not my computer, but the computer of other members of the group. I'm the admin, they are members.
  • adamsmith
    And this is a group folder? In that case, have someone add a tag to _all_ items in the collection. Make sure the tag is synced to the server (i.e. check on the website here). Then sync your library. You'll get sync conflicts for those items. For all of them, accept the remote (server) version.
  • mondouma
    Great. Thanks for this solution!

    Yes, it's a group library for shared work.

  • mondouma
    edited January 18, 2018
    Actually, the procedure did not work as planned.

    The tags were marked online as planned, but the synchronisation with my faulty local version put the collection in the trash folder. I did not get the conflict version reconciliation query as planned.

    The tags stayed online after the sync however. So I worked with the online version to recreate a collection with tagged files.

    I have yet to press sync from my local computer. I don't know what are the rules for syncing... Will Zotero use my local faulty version or the online version?
  • dstillman
    You wouldn't have gotten a conflict resolution window in this case, because there wasn't anything to show — the items were simply in the trash on one side and had an extra tag on the other, and neither of those show in the CR window. But for this to work I think you would've also needed to have made a temporary change to the collection name on the server side, in order to create a conflict with the collection deletion that would restore the collection.

    Out of curiosity, did the items in the trash locally end up with the tag after syncing?

    Anyhow, if you sync now it should pull down the collection and the items. You should make a backup of your Zotero data directory (or at least the zotero.sqlite file) first just to be safe.
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