when tried with a test profile, it seems there is no single way to create a custom folder path. one gets a warning that says the folder is empty (what were a newly created folder supposed to have been?) or else the default /home/user/Zotero is selected, which is not empty and belongs to another profile, as aforementioned.

It sounds like you did something to move or delete the new data directory. Zotero certainly didn't delete it — there's literally no code to do so. You can search for other zotero.sqlite files on your system.

when tried with a test profile, it seems there is no single way to create a custom folder path

I don't know what you mean by this.

When you create a new secondary profile, and ~/Zotero already exists and is linked to by an existing profile, it automatically creates a data directory named after the new profile (e.g., "~/Zotero Test").

correct

"It sounds like you did something to move or delete the new data directory. Zotero certainly didn't delete it — there's literally no code to do so. You can search for other zotero.sqlite files on your system. "

--

definitely done nothing. I wrote what happened. I worked in the profile, closed it, and the next time I opened it I got the above warning.

If you were using Zotero, you had a data directory. It's now missing. But if Zotero is looking for it, it definitely existed previously, and Zotero didn't delete it. It literally has no way of doing so.

--

so you are telling me that the warning is the proof that a proper data file has been created during my very first session that is now lost, and that it must be somewhere in my system saved as "zotero.sqlite" file.

I am searching through the files with this name.

When you create a new secondary profile, and ~/Zotero already exists and is linked to by an existing profile, it automatically creates a data directory named after the new profile (e.g., "~/Zotero Test").

--

I created a test profile, and there is no folder created "~/Zotero Test".

also no sqlite file with the lost content anywhere in the system.

and let me add one more thing. this is not the first time. as soon as the upgrade of a month or so ago came, none of the additional profiles under the home folder have been recognized by Zotero.

I think this IS a problem that occured after the said upgrade, update or whatever. because of this, I had to recreate the folders of all my profiles elsewhere, except the one at ~/Zotero.

For the same reason, I cant see the folder of a newly created test profile under the home dir.

and possibly for the same reason, I worked for hours but no data was saved because no data folder was created under the home dir.

(That's also likely why Locate crashes the program.)

Again, we can't provide support for this. Zotero is obviously using a database when it's running. What some sandboxed environment does with non-whitelisted folders is not something we have anything to do with.

No, I asked those people if they were running a third-party package, and I said if they were that was likely the problem.

We have never supported third-party packages. We can't support something that we don't have anything to do with creating.

I don't know what you think you're accomplishing here by arguing with us, but you are wasting people's time, and you are going to get banned from posting here if you keep this up.

We don't "submit" our software to third parties. Zotero is open source, we provide a tarball that we vouch for, and third parties create packages for various Linux distributions and configurations. That's how most Linux software works.

A sandbox is a sandbox. It's going to break any functionality that can't work within the sandbox, and that's obviously the case for arbitrary folder locations. We don't distribute a sandboxed version of Zotero for that reason.

There was no "failure to create the data folder" by Zotero. Zotero can't work without a data folder. It created one, in whatever virtualized filesystem environment that was made available to it, and used it for as long as you were using Zotero. We can't vouch for anything beyond that.

Most third-party packages presumably work fine in a default configuration, with ~/Zotero whitelisted. Creating a secondary profile is an advanced feature, and if you don't know how to make it work with the third-party sandboxed package you chose to use, you shouldn't use it. Or you can switch to the tarball (or the minimal repackaging of the tarball done by a trusted community member), which works the way we intend for Zotero to work.

@dstillman please feel free to delete this comment if you believe that I have overstepped.

First, I want to say that Dan Stillman, the lead developer of Zotero, has demonstrated time and again on this forum that he is wise, competent, and kind. You are misinterpreting his remarks here.

Zotero is open source software. The Zotero obtained from Zotero.org works within several Linux environments as well as Mac and Windows. At least tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of users have no problems with Zotero unless they make unusual changes to their operating environment. Please reread the attempts to help you. There is something unusual about how you obtained Zotero or how you have your operating system configured. Perhaps, both. Instead of accepting the suggestions made that should solve your problems you have argued that your issues are not internal to your system but the fault of Zotero. Clearly, you are frustrated that things are not working as you desire. However, your refusal to consider much less follow the advice given is misplaced and frustrating to those who are genuinely trying to help.