New laptop and trying to access Zotero library from former laptop

miwjohns
Hi Zotero users, I am in a bit of a bind. My past laptop quit working on me and I just got word that IT will need to wipe the drive of the laptop once they have fixed the laptop with the new part. I am using my backup laptop right now and have tried to sync the Zotero from my malfunctioning laptop to my current one, but it's only showing a blank library. Does anyone know how to get my notes and files from the other laptop to my current one? Thank you!
  • dstillman
    edited November 24, 2021
    This just means you weren't syncing before, at least with the account you're trying now.

    Either of these methods will work, but both would depend on your data still being available on the old computer (unless you were syncing with a different account and can find it):

    https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/transferring_a_library
  • dstillman
    @miwjohns: From a previous thread of yours it sounds like you may have more than one account.
  • Shelly231995
    I have confirmed that I was not syncing with the previous account (shelly231995) and that the former library is still intact but is no longer relevant to my current work. I wonder if I made the following mistake: I logged first into the desktop zotero app on my current laptop, then hit sync thinking that it'd upload the former library. I wonder if in doing that, I accidentally replaced the library that had been synced before on my old laptop. If that is the unfortunate case, could I access the former library online?
  • dstillman
    edited November 24, 2021
    I'm not sure what exactly you're asking — I think you're using some terms (e.g., "upload") in imprecise ways — but no, if you set up syncing on a new computer and sync it just pulls down the data from the online library of that account. Nothing gets "replaced".

    There's no special way to access a particular version of a library. Whatever data you have online depends entirely on what you've synced and is visible from the online library when you log into a given account.

    For what it's worth, there's been regular, ongoing syncing with the Shelly231995 account but no new data for years, so it's possible you accidentally disabled syncing of My Library from the Sync preferences. (A future version of Zotero will warn you if a library isn't syncing, but by default all libraries sync once you set up syncing.)

    Again, if the data is still on your old laptop, when you have access to the computer again you can just sync that data (after fixing the preferences) or copy its data directory to the new computer.
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