Upgrade StorageAccidentally deleted files from a Mendeley transfer - tried the Mendeley import again unsuccessfully
I have needed to transfer many files from a Mendeley account into a Zotero account. I did this in two Mendeley imports into Zotero. Both that I have done took many hours (maybe days - the import would freeze and I would wait a long time before closing it incase files were still being imported).
In each transfer, I saw a folder named with the date of that transfer, then inside of this folder was the folder structure in my Mendeley library that I wanted to keep. I had moved these folders with collections I wanted into other folders in Zotero. I thought then that I don't need the folder titled "transfer [transfer date]" and deleted it along with it's collection. Unfortunately, it looks like the files in that folder that were in its subfolders that I had moved all dissapeared.
From what I understood - I could not "undo" this delete. The only way I could recover deleted files would be that the citation is saved, but with no attachments of the articles.
Now I'm trying to do another mendeley import, to get all of these files back - but my import attempt yesterday that I let run all of today only appears to have transferred the folder structure with no content in it whatsoever. I'm not sure if it transferred no files over because of the import window being frozen, if duplicates of all these files still exist somewhere and it was my settings that messed this up, or for some other reason.
What can I do?
In each transfer, I saw a folder named with the date of that transfer, then inside of this folder was the folder structure in my Mendeley library that I wanted to keep. I had moved these folders with collections I wanted into other folders in Zotero. I thought then that I don't need the folder titled "transfer [transfer date]" and deleted it along with it's collection. Unfortunately, it looks like the files in that folder that were in its subfolders that I had moved all dissapeared.
From what I understood - I could not "undo" this delete. The only way I could recover deleted files would be that the citation is saved, but with no attachments of the articles.
Now I'm trying to do another mendeley import, to get all of these files back - but my import attempt yesterday that I let run all of today only appears to have transferred the folder structure with no content in it whatsoever. I'm not sure if it transferred no files over because of the import window being frozen, if duplicates of all these files still exist somewhere and it was my settings that messed this up, or for some other reason.
What can I do?
While it is not possible to recover collections (but this feature is coming in a future version), items, together with attachments, notes etc., can be recovered from trash.
Finally, if you're OK with Zotero overriding any changes you've done to these items since importing to Zotero, you can run import again, and this time uncheck "Download new items only; don't update previously imported items".
Default behaviour (above checkbox checked) prevents ANY changes to previously imported items, including adding these items it to a new collection. Unchecking this checkbox will override imported items (as explained above, these are not gone) to match what is in Mendeley, but also re-create collections structure.
I did however also try to import again, unchecking the "download new items only; don't update previously imported items" but the new folder from this transfer date (that states its a transfer from the date I started it) is again completely empty. The import progress bar had stopped after a few hours (6-8?) at less than halfway, I kept the computer on (not logged off) for an additional 12 hours incase the import was still going on despite the progress bar not loading, but after 2 days I closed the Zotero import window that was non responsive.
I don't understand why no items are now importing - but if all my items can be returned to my library (ideally in the folders they were previously located in minus the "transfer folder" I deleted, then that's ok.
Collections won't be restored that way, though — you'd have to reimport for that. It sounds like Mendeley servers may be slow for you for that. Best we can suggest there is to restart Zotero and try again.