Requesting help for download link for PC Windows Zotero 4

Dervish · January 19, 2025

I switched to a Mac mini M4 Pro OS Sequoia and installed Zotero 7.0.11
When I tried to open an old backup of Zotero database I received the following message:

“Incompatible Database Version
The selected data directory is too old to be used with this version of Zotero. Please first upgrade the data directory using Zotero 4.0 for Firefox or select a different directory.”

My old PC had Zotero-4.0.27 installed when I created the Zotero Database. I no longer have Zotero installed but still have access to the PC.
Could anyone give me a link to download Zotero-4....setup.exe file. I searched but could only find Version 5.
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

dstillman · January 20, 2025

That would be a vastly older database, from something before 2.1b3 in May 2009. The message is saying you need 4.0 just to upgrade it to something that can be upgraded by later versions.

Current versions of Zotero can still upgrade 4.0 databases.

Zotero 4.0 won't work properly on current macOS versions in various ways, but it might work enough for you to upgrade the DB:

https://www.zotero.org/download/client/dl?channel=release&platform=mac&version=4.0.29.15

Once that opens, you can install Zotero 7 from the download page.

dstillman · January 20, 2025

(Well, I guess I'm not sure why you're asking about the Windows version. If you have the files on your Mac, you don't need to use your PC anymore. But again, that database wasn't created with Zotero 4.0, so if you know you used Zotero 4.0 at some point, you're looking for a different copy of your data directory.)

Dervish · January 20, 2025

Thanks for the link. You are correct it is an old backup with old notes up to 2009. I will give the mac 4.0.29.15 version a try.

Dervish · January 20, 2025

Thanks again for your help accessing/importing my old database. I could open the old database with the 4.0.29.15 version. I then just updated to version 7.0.11 and could access my old database. I could sync it with my account. Thanks.