Collection disappeared

This discussion was created from comments split from: Collection Disappeared!.
  • Hi! I have the same problem. A collection with many subcollections disappeared. I restored a back up from June 14, but apparently that didn't have the subcollection in it. I'm not sure when this subcollecion disappeared. I'm fairly certain I didn't delete it. Could this have been the result of the recent update? Following some forums, I only restored the "storage" folder and the sqlite file, should I have restored everything int the Zotero data directory? Please help.
  • (It's generally better to just start a new thread rather than posting in years-old threads. I've split this one off.)

    Was this in your personal library or in a group? Server logs show no collections having been deleted in your personal library in over a month.

    Have you checked to see whether you simply dragged it somewhere else? You can do that either by looking for an item that was in the collection and checking the containing collections or by clicking in the collections pane, pressing + to expand all collections, and then looking for it elsewhere (or starting to type the name of it).
  • dstillman: Thank you for responding! I really appreciate it. I followed your advice and found that I had in fact accidentally moved the collection elsewhere. If it's alright, I have one more quick question because I made a bit of a mess of things already.

    In an effort to retrieve the collection, I made a copy of the current "storage" and "sqlite" files, turned off automatic sync, and restored the "storage" and "sqlite" files from a backup version on an apple time machine. My plan is to copy and paste the most recent "storage" and "sqlite" files back into the directory. Once I do that, should I just go ahead and turn automatic sync back on? I'm just wondering in what direction the sync happens (from local to online or vice-versa) and if that matters.

    Thank you so much!
  • @dstillman This comes up often enough that I wonder if dragging a collection into another collection should require a confirmation?
  • @mestefan: Yes, you can just turn sync back on. Syncing doesn't really happen in a "direction" — it just syncs explicit changes. So if you copy in an old database in sync, it will pull down recent changes from the online library. If you copy in a database that's already in sync, it won't do anything. And if you make changes to a local database, those changes will sync up to the online library.

    (The exception is if you use "Restore to Online Library" from the Sync → Reset pane, which forces it to overwrite the online library, which you'd need to do to switch back to an older local database.)

    @bwiernik: I think that's way too much friction, and I can't really think of any folder-like systems that do that. But I think it's helpful to know that this is probably what's happening a lot of the time when people say a library disappeared. And when we add deleted collections to the trash, it'll be even clearer that, when a collection isn't there, it's just somewhere else in the library.
  • @dstillman: Thanks for being so responsive and for all your help. I really appreciate it.
  • @dstillman: I am using this login which is my friends. I had added folders and articles from my computer into the library. I see the folders but the articles are missing. Checked the online library shows the same thing. Where could the articles be and what's the way to recover them ?
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