Lost Zotero library after updating

ELS641729
My Zotero library was deleted after Zotero updated. I never synced with an online account so the data was only stored directly in my computer. I've looked at other threads and have been unable to solve the issue. I checked the data directory and it is the Zotero folder on my computer. I checked the size of files in that folder and all zotero.sqlite files are all 1 MB or smaller (except places.sqlite is 5.2 MB) so it looks like maybe they were over-written. My storage folder still looks like it has PDFs that used to be in my Zotero library. Is there any way to recover my library?
  • dstillman
    edited May 9, 2022
    Updating wouldn't delete your database. As explained in Locating Missing Zotero Data, the most likely cause of this is your accidentally deleting zotero.sqlite and the various .bak files outside of Zotero (e.g., by using a disk-cleaning tool), in which case your only option would be restoring from a backup that you've made.

    But you didn't provide various pieces of info requested in that that section, including this:
    The names, sizes, and dates of all files beginning with “zotero.sqlite” in your current data directory
  • ELS641729
    In my current data directory I have:

    places.sqlite April 19, 2022 5.2 MB
    zotero.sqlite May 5, 2022 1 MB
    zotero.sqlite2 May 1, 2022 1 MB
    zotero.sqlite-journal May 5, 2022 91 KB
    zotero.sqlite.1.bark May 7, 2022 1 MB
    zotero.sqlite.bak May 8, 2022 1 MB

    I have been unable to find other zotero.sqlite files on my computer.
  • dstillman
    Right, so you likely tried to clear disk space sometime before May 1 or May 5 and deleted your Zotero database and all the backup copies.

    The account you're posting from is new, but if you had another account that you were syncing with before, you could sync with that. Otherwise, your only option would be to restore from a backup copy you made elsewhere (or perhaps try to use an undelete tool to restore zotero.sqlite from before you deleted it, but that's not that likely to work at this point).

    (For what it's worth, zotero.sqlite2 isn't a file that Zotero would create, and places.sqlite isn't a file that would be in this folder, so those you somehow created/copied in by hand, perhaps while trying to debug this.)
  • dstillman
    edited May 9, 2022
    If you don't have a backup and need to start from scratch, your best option is to move the data directory to your desktop as "Zotero Old", restart Zotero to create a new, empty data directory, do a search for all PDF files within "Zotero Old", and drag those into Zotero. It will then try to find metadata for them. You can then delete the old folder.

    You can also extract data from word processor documents you've created.
  • ELS641729
    Ok - thank you! I am copying pdf files and will re-sort into folders.
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