"Citation no Longer Exists..." after upgrade and db re-import

ezmiller
I am getting the following error message: "This citation no longer exists in the Zotero database. Delete it?" This is occurring after 1) I did a clean installation of Firefox and 2) installed the Zotero 2.0 beta along with the latest Word Plug-in 1.0b4. I am not sure whether the cause of this error message is 1) the new versions of Zotero and/or the Word plug-in, or 2) the fact that I re-imported my database into Zotero after reinstalling Firefox and the new version of Zotero. I also don't understand what the consequences of this message are. I will obviously not delete the citation, but what if I instruct it not to delete the citation? Does that mean that I will need to recreate every single citation? This would be rather tragic, as I used Zotero to edit my dissertation and this would put me in the position of redoing all my Zotero citations in the dissertation. Can anyone help? It would be great....
  • dstillman
    the fact that I re-imported my database into Zotero after reinstalling Firefox and the new version of Zotero
    That is why.

    http://www.zotero.org/support/2.0_beta#upgrading_from_zotero_1.0.x

    You don't want to export and re-import.

    Do you have a backup of your pre-upgrade Zotero data directory?
  • ezmiller
    I don't know if I do. Where is that directory? I was under the impression that the way one backed up the database was by using the Export function...
  • dstillman
    No, I'm afraid not: http://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#how_do_i_back_up_my_zotero_library

    The rest of that page may also help.

    It's worth mentioning that reinstalling Firefox wouldn't clear your Zotero data unless you actually deleted your old Firefox profile, which you would have to go out of your way to do. Alternatively you might have accidentally created a new profile (also explained on that page).
  • ezmiller
    I did delete the Firefox profile because there was some bug in my Firefox and it wasn't working. So is there anything I can do at this point besides going through and re-doing every single citation?
  • ezmiller
    What happens exactly, when the citation is not in the database but there is a citation in the word file?
  • adamsmith
    Zotero doesn't know what to do so it asks you - you can either delete the citation, or select which one it should be.

    The alternative is to open the file in a Word Processor without the Zotero plugin. You can than flatten all fields - that way your file looks like the one you had before, but the citations aren't connected to Zotero anymore - i.e. they won't be included in the bibliography and they won't update if you, e.g., change the citation style.

    Unfortunately I don't think that for your situation there is another solution. You're probably best of manually inserting every citation :-(
  • ezmiller
    That's what I get for acting too quickly! Damn.

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