I COMPLETELY LOST MY LIBRARY!!!!!
Hi everybody,
I really desperately need your help. This morning I have opened Zotero 5.0.94-beta.6+aeceb67a0 and I couldn't find any of my data inside!! Why is this happening? Funny is that in my storage folder there are still all my documents but the library on my Zotero app is completely empty.
Could you please help in setting back my library coz I really need it to finish writing my PhD? Thank you
I really desperately need your help. This morning I have opened Zotero 5.0.94-beta.6+aeceb67a0 and I couldn't find any of my data inside!! Why is this happening? Funny is that in my storage folder there are still all my documents but the library on my Zotero app is completely empty.
Could you please help in setting back my library coz I really need it to finish writing my PhD? Thank you
I have already gone through all the discussions here and did most of the steps you were suggesting on other posts but it does not work.
What happened: Yesterday morning, I opened up my computer and Zotero and all my files inside are gone. Nothing happened before as far as I know (I didn't do anything intentionally)
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What I did:
1) Checked the directory ---> it is fine ( data directory is on my /Users//Zotero)
2) Uninstalled Zotero and Re-installed Zotero (nothing changed) --> nothing changed
3) Created an account (which I didn't have before) and launch sync --> nothing changed
4) Updated my Apple system (so now I have the latest version) --> nothing changed
5) Copied the folder "Zotero" from the data directory to the desktop, renamed the old folder "Zotero-Old" and put the (desktop) older in the data directory again --> nothing changed
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Now my "Zotero" folder in the data directory /Users//Zotero, the file
zotero.sqlite is 1MB
The version of Zotero I am using now is 5.0.94-beta.6+aeceb67a0
Never used Firefox ( I use Safari and Chrome) and I have a Zotero Standalone version.
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Last point: Funny is that I still have the storage file in the Zotero fold with all the pdf files I had in my Library!
I am a bit getting crazy with this problem and I would be very grateful if you could help me! Thanks
You've never synced your data, so your only option would be to restore from a backup of your data directory.
zotero.sqlite.bak (size 971KB) created yesterday
What I did:
I renamed the Zotero folder located in /Users/Zotero "Zotero-Old" and I copied the Zotero folder from /Users/Zotero/Library/Application Support to the /Users/Zotero with the name "Zotero". So my data directory is not linked to the new folder I have exported from /Users/Zotero/Library/Application Support.
And since you have no other .bak files in that folder, it's further evidence that something on your system deleted all the database files.
Did you run any utility software on this computer in the last few days? I can't tell you what happened, but it wasn't Zotero that did this — there's simply no way for Zotero to delete your database files like this. If something deletes the Zotero database, your library will disappear.
In any case, as I say above, your only option here would be to restore your zotero.sqlite database from a backup you made previously.
Basically I lost the work of 3 years... for something I still don't know. Well, it is very much frustrating and definitely shows that I cannot rely on Zotero for my work! I decided to use Zotero to make my life easier not more complicated.
Anyway, thanks a lot for your support.
Regardless of the cause, note too that if you had been using Zotero syncing, you would have been able to restore your library simply by syncing.
If you're doing any important work on your computer, you want to be making regular, automated backups of your entire computer. Time Machine, built in to macOS, makes this very easy.
But once more, this isn't something that Zotero did. If Zotero's databases are deleted on disk and you didn't sync and don't have backups, you're going to lose your data, and there's absolutely nothing we can do about that.
What really drives me crazy is that I literally didn't do anything before I had this problem: one day I opened Zotero to regularly work and the library is completely gone. Now, as it has happened one time and I lost all (despite I follow all the instructions on this forum and I lost three days trying to solve the problem), I am definitely not sure that something similar could not happen again. So the question of Zotero affidability remains. And as I said, I use Zotero to make my life easier not more complicated as evidently this discussion shows.
Thank you for your time again and support and please, consider that it is not my fault if I lost my library in which I put three years of work!
We wrote the Zotero code. You're going to have to believe us when we tell you that there's no code in Zotero that can delete your database and all automatic backup files and leave the 'storage' folder behind. We can't fix something in code that doesn't exist. I didn't say it's your fault. I said 1) Zotero couldn't have done this itself and 2) the most likely cause is some sort of software that tries to clean up your system, for example by deleting large files.
In any case, if you have Time Machine backups, you almost certainly didn't lose your data.
For the record: I have take all my stuff from the PC and put into an external hard-disk and when empty, I have used Time Machine to restore the last backup I did last week. I lost some papers, books and other small items that I have saved in the last week but I am finally happy to say that my Zotero library is back!!! So, for whoever has the same problem, I suggest to use Time-Machine and just upload your last backup and it should work.
However, I didn't use any system-cleaning software and I still do not know what happened and why it didn't work one day. (I had some space problems on my hardisk and I couldn't use Safari properly but I didn't touch Zotero or any other programs).
Anyway, hope this discussion here helps somebody with the same problem.
How large is your zotero.sqlite file?
Yes, I use the built-in tools that MacOs provides you to clear large files
By the way, I have created an account and I have sync my Library with zotero.org, does it allow me to store the Library online? How can I see which files are stored and which one are not - coz I don't have enough space to save all the library?
Data syncing is free and unlimited, so all your library data will be available online if you've synced.
File syncing is free up to 300 MB, and above that you'd need a storage subscription. You can tell what files are synced by which files you're able to view online. But it doesn't really make sense to think of that in terms of which files are synced — you either have enough space to upload all your files without getting a quota error or you'd want to just turn off file syncing and rely on other backups for the attachment files.
File syncing is attachment files like PDFs, images, or Word documents that you’ve attached to the items. That’s limited by your quota. If you don’t want to sync PDFs or other files, you can disable file syncing in the Preferences of the Zotero desktop app.