several Zotero libraries now that Firefox Extension isn't available?

Hello,

We (Library staff) were able to maintain several Zotero libraries while the Firefox extension existed; we were able to do that with different Firefox profiles, one for each Zotero account.
How are we going to transition now that there is only a standalone version? Can you still have several Zotero libraries at the same time on a Windows PC ? If yes, how? Where are the files saved?

We've tried to sync with another user credentials but it seems to us that the data is going to be erased each time you sync. So we stopped.

Thanks
  • You can use profiles with Zotero Standalone in exactly the same way as you did with Firefox.
  • Thanks for the confirmation, it's good news...

    But the problem is that whenever we launch Zotero stand alone, we get the data associated to the same Zotero account, how do we switch accounts?
    We've tried to open preferences and enter another user credentials for syncing but we are having a hard time understanding what's going to happen from the message popping up... :
    "This Z database was last synced with a different Z.org account (accountA) for the current one (accountB). If you continue, local groups including any with changed items, will be removed and replaced with groups linked to the 'accountB' account."

    The one thing we absolutely don't want to happen is data from different accounts to get mixed...
    So, can you still have several data directories on your PC (as before) in
    C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles ?
    And will syncing with another user account just update the appropriate data directory?

    Thanks
  • You need to set up profiles via the terminal/command-prompt, just like you initially did with Firefox, i.e. with the -ProfileManager flag. Other than for Firefox you may need to specify the full path to zotero.exe, i.e. something like this (on Windows)

    C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Zotero\zotero.exe -ProfileManager

    (I believe the location will be slightly different if you installed with an admin account, but same idea)
  • Hello, and thanks,

    We made some progress: we created 2 profiles for the Zotero application (on a Windows 10 laptop where Zotero had never been installed) and when you launch Zotero, it now asks you which profile you want to use.

    However, it always opens the same library...
    Our .exe file is here:
    C:\program files(x86)\zoterostandalone\zotero.exe
    The data is here (as set in Zotero preferences, by default):
    C:\Users\[username]\Zotero
    The zotero profiles are here:
    C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Zotero\Zotero\Profiles

    When you say we may need to specify the full path to zotero.exe, where do we specify that? On the Zotero desktop shortcut properties?

    Thanks for your patience.
  • Zotero 5.0 uses C:\Users\[user name]\Zotero for a data directory by default, so you'll want to set the different profiles to use different data directories in the Advanced → Files and Folders pane of the Zotero preferences.

    There's also a "-datadir profile" option that will store the data within the profile directory itself, but I wouldn't recommend that for this use case.
  • We finally made it!
    Thank you very very much.

    Maybe step by step instructions in the documentation would be worth writing? :)
  • The documentation is a wiki. Since you just worked through the process yourself and are freshly familiar with the steps and nuance you needed to follow, you would be in a great position to write up some sort documentation. Such a contribution would be much appreciated!
  • Did you (lamoreux or bwiernik) write it down somewhere?
  • Louise: This thread is two years old. Can you start a new thread and explain exactly what your question is?
  • But if you're really asking about having multiple profiles, see this page:

    https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/multiple_profiles
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