Error setting new validation key

tenderised · September 18, 2019

I am trying to log into my previous account after my laptop needed repair and the hard-drive was wiped. The system isn't recognising any of my emails and I am getting the message above. Can anyone advise? Thank you.

fcheslack · September 18, 2019

If none of your emails are recognized, it may be that you never registered a Zotero account before. Do you know what username you would have used?

Note that it's entirely possible to use Zotero without an account if you're not syncing or using groups.

If you weren't syncing your data with Zotero but you have a backup from your laptop, there are details on where Zotero data is kept on your computer and how to restore it at https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data

tenderised · September 19, 2019

I was using Zotero on my laptop and desktop so I must have been syncing (or not?).

fcheslack · September 19, 2019

Assuming you were actually sharing the same library on them (rather than maintaining two separate libraries) then yes. If you have Zotero on your desktop you can check if it's set up to sync, and what account it's using, from the sync preferences
https://www.zotero.org/support/preferences/sync

tenderised · September 23, 2019

I have been logged out of Zotero on my desktop. There is no information in software folder either. The IT people think this is weird and wonder if it is possible that the work done on my laptop could have deleted my account on the Zotero server? Also, how do I contact Zotero administrators to provide my email addresses to see if they can restore my account?

dstillman · September 23, 2019

wonder if it is possible that the work done on my laptop could have deleted my account on the Zotero server

No, syncing doesn't work like that.

You can email support@zotero.org with a link to this thread and we can take a look, but if you still have access to the email addresses, then simply trying to reset the password for all of them would be the way to check whether you had an account.

dstillman · September 23, 2019

I have been logged out of Zotero on my desktop.

Also, what do you mean by this? Do you still have your Zotero library locally and just not have sync information? Or do you not have a library at all?

If you have a library and no sync information, it's pretty likely you just weren't using syncing and had different libraries on different computers (or perhaps exported and imported once, which is the same as having two separate libraries).