synch files, choose one, whoops!

While syncing My Library, I was presented with a dialogue box to choose which version of a PDF to keep. (Apparently the local and the cloud versions varied). I chose one but it happened to be the one without my annotations. Is there any way to recover the other version of the file?
  • Assuming you made the annotations on another computer, if you haven't yet synced that computer you'd still have the version with the annotations there. You could disconnect it from the internet (e.g., turn off wifi), open Zotero, and save a copy of the file there (e.g., drag the attachment to your desktop), and then add it back after syncing (or make another annotation locally to trigger another conflict resolution dialog).

    Note that this should only happen if the file was changed on both sides. If you just annotate a file on one computer, Zotero will sync those annotations to another computer without a conflict.
  • edited April 25, 2020
    I only use the one computer and of course the sync was made from it. It wasn't clear which copy was which. Not sure why there was a conflict .
  • Hmm, OK, that shouldn't happen. If you see another conflict resolution window that you don't expect to see, we'd want to see a Debug ID for a sync attempt through getting the dialog (after which you should click Cancel).

    I'm afraid there's no way to restore an unsynced file without a backup of your Zotero data directory.
  • OK thanks, I'll keep this in mind for the future.
Sign In or Register to comment.