Upgrade StorageProblem after transferring library
Hi,
unfortunately I didn’t know that the import/ export function of Zotero doesn’t work for transferring the library between computers. As I gave my laptop a new OS and did only a backup for specific folders, I can’t go back and copy and paste all the data as I was supposed to do.
I have a backup of the folder Zotero_linux_x86_64 though as I started Zotero from there and thought all the relevant data would be in here. It contains folders such as chrome, components, defaults etc. Could this help me in restoring the old library?
Right now the library is not connected to my thesis anymore so I would have to set over 400 citations again if I can’t restore everything.
Hope someone can answer my question.
unfortunately I didn’t know that the import/ export function of Zotero doesn’t work for transferring the library between computers. As I gave my laptop a new OS and did only a backup for specific folders, I can’t go back and copy and paste all the data as I was supposed to do.
I have a backup of the folder Zotero_linux_x86_64 though as I started Zotero from there and thought all the relevant data would be in here. It contains folders such as chrome, components, defaults etc. Could this help me in restoring the old library?
Right now the library is not connected to my thesis anymore so I would have to set over 400 citations again if I can’t restore everything.
Hope someone can answer my question.
You should be able to see items here: https://www.zotero.org/t480/library
If you don't have a backup of your Zotero data directory, I'm afraid your database would be gone, and the imported items won't be linked to the citations in existing documents.
Note that you can still just keep using the document — you don't necessarily need to replace everything. Zotero will use the metadata embedded in the document, and you can insert additional copies of those citations by selecting from the Cited section of the search results in the citation dialog rather than the library section. If you need to edit data, though, you'll need to replace all instances of a citation with one from the library itself.
@damnation: Unfortunately I didn't sync my library. I thought that this would sync the attached files as well and 300 MB wouldn't have been enough for that. Doing a local backup seemed easier anyway so I didn't bother reading through the support sites. Now I know that this was a mistake...
@dstillman: As I'll still be working on the document for quite a while and edit footnotes and bibliograaphy I guess I'll have to replace the citations then. It's going to take a while, but I wouldn't want to work without the great help from Zotero for the next year.
PS: In my opinion it would be helpful to implement a warning when someone clicks on the export button (like the one on the support website):
"Warning: You shouldn't use export (e.g., to Zotero RDF, BibTeX, or RIS) as a backup method. Exporting and re-importing a library doesn't produce an exact copy — it will reset Date Added/Modified times and break links to existing citations in word processor documents, along with other potential changes."