Zotero folders disappearing

ewengler818
I have had a very weird thing happen with Zotero 6.0.37. As I have done many times before, I added a subfolder to a collection. This time, however, after I created and named the subfolder and both it and the collection it was in disappeared. I quickly turned off automatic syncing and I followed the directions for restoring a deleted folder (assuming that's what happened) from a back up .sqlite file. When I relaunched, the original collection was there. Then I tried adding the subfolder to it again—and again, both subfolder and collection disappeared when I did that.

An IT professional installed the update to Zotero 7. When we opened it up, we saw the original folder in the column amidst the rest of my folders--and as we were talking, we saw it disappear! We had not touched anything. When I searched for it in the app, I could not find any trace of it.

Ideas? Thanks in advance!
  • dstillman
    edited October 23, 2024
    That likely just means the collection was deleted — either by you or someone with access to your library (e.g., on a shared computer you left logged in) — and you didn't fully follow the steps for restoring from an automatic backup, which explain that, if you just sync, the deletion is going to be pulled down from the online library and reapplied to the restored library. The instructions include specific guidance for retaining a deleted library.

    It looks like nine collections in your library were deleted on October 11th.

    Assuming you still have the original backup files (which you if you followed the restore instructions), you can follow the steps given again.

    Note that in Zotero 7 deleted collections are initially moved to the trash and can be restored from there.
  • dstillman
    Though there are a couple things odd in your description, if this is just a deleted collection:

    1) Creating a subcollection would by default trigger an auto-sync that would pull down the deletion, but Zotero should also auto-sync at startup, so the collection should disappear before you have a chance to make changes.

    2) It's not totally clear what you did between your first and second paragraph. If the deletion was pulled down and applied to the restored library, updating to Zotero 7 wouldn't cause it to reappear.

    If you restore from the backup, select the collection, go to Tools → Developer → Run JavaScript, and run ZoteroPane.getSelectedCollection().key, and tell us the result, we could say more.
  • ewengler818
    edited October 23, 2024
    Thanks for your help. I restored from an older sqlite file. I ran the code above and the result was IWUJVQWU.

    I tried again today. When I restored this time, I turned off automatic syncing on the local app, quit the app, then restored with the sqlite.bak file (first renaming without the .bak) which I knew would have the deleted collections. Then, I relaunched the Zotero app on my computer. Everything looked good--the deleted collections were there. I then went to settings and turned on sync automatically again. Then I quit the local Zotero app. Then I restarted it. And when it started up, I saw the collections but within a couple of seconds, they disappeared again.
    Since the collections were visible for only a few seconds after relaunch and automatic syncing was enabled, my best guess is that local is being overwritten by the online account which is missing the same collections. The two appear identical. So, I tried the whole restore process as explained above. This time I didn't reselect sync automatically and instead manually synced with Zotero.org from top right hand corner of the local app. And the collections on the local app disappeared.

    I thought that the online and local would merge when synced rather than the local being overwritten by the online. What do I need to do to make the two merge and/or stop the local from being overwritten each time it syncs with the online? If, that is what is actually happening.
    Thanks.
  • enozkan
    Those instructions say this:
    3. Once you see your restored data, were you to sync again, the more recent data in the online library would replace the data you just restored, and you'll need to take steps to prevent that:
    and go on to explain what you need to do to retain the collections. Are you sure you followed the instructions, and did one of the three possible ways to keep the deleted collection under that step to overwrite synced changes?
  • dstillman
    (And yes, you deleted that collection on October 11th.)
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