Upgrade StorageAny way to modify the Date Added?
I understand that the "Date Added" field is populated once upon creation of the record and then never touched again. This is generally fine, but when you import thousands of items from your previous reference management software (Citavi, in my case), this means loss of data as the date created will be the date when the records were imported.
My switch to Zotero happened years ago, but the missing information about when I added an item to the database keeps bugging me until today (I didn't anticipate that this date would be so meaningful in providing contextual information for an item).
I do have the information preserved in the "extra" field in this format:
Created: 2016-04-14T21:22:01
Modified: 2016-04-14T21:22:01
and I wonder whether there is any way of writing these into Zotero's "Date Added" field (and possibly also "Modified", though some extra logic would be necessary for this to prevent more recent dates to be overwritten).
Since this is one-off operation, it doesn't need a fancy UI. Perhaps it can be done with a python script? It doesn't look like the zotero API allows write access to dateAdded, so Pyzotero doesn't seem to be an option. Can it be done by accessing the sqlite db directly?
My switch to Zotero happened years ago, but the missing information about when I added an item to the database keeps bugging me until today (I didn't anticipate that this date would be so meaningful in providing contextual information for an item).
I do have the information preserved in the "extra" field in this format:
Created: 2016-04-14T21:22:01
Modified: 2016-04-14T21:22:01
and I wonder whether there is any way of writing these into Zotero's "Date Added" field (and possibly also "Modified", though some extra logic would be necessary for this to prevent more recent dates to be overwritten).
Since this is one-off operation, it doesn't need a fancy UI. Perhaps it can be done with a python script? It doesn't look like the zotero API allows write access to dateAdded, so Pyzotero doesn't seem to be an option. Can it be done by accessing the sqlite db directly?
https://www.zotero.org/support/dev/client_coding/javascript_api
(Do not modify the DB directly.)
Just to double-check, since there is an example at the bottom of the page that shouldn’t be used because it ”has not been updated for Zotero 5”: are all the other examples fit for Zotero 7?
I had this issue as well (well, not personally, but the users I support during our migration from EndNote to Zotero).
I decided to bash together a python script to pull the required data directly from the EndNote library instead of messing with EndNote itself, as it's apparently just a sqlite db under the hood.
Then I had the issue that Zotero doesn't import those dates, so I also wrote a small plugin that reads in created/added dates from Notes and changes the fields accordingly.
You can find a short guide with links on my website here:
https://libraet.samuelmok.cc/posts/endnote-export/
I turned the python script into an standalone executable with GUI for ease of use, but if you want/need the source python file you can find it on my github as well: https://github.com/utsmok/endnote-exporter - also includes binaries for macos/linux (untested).
And of course the same goes for the plugin:
https://github.com/utsmok/endnote-date-fixer
Thank you so much for creating and sharing this phenomenal tool — it's exactly what I've been searching for over the past few days!
One of the main reasons I've hesitated to switch from EndNote to Zotero is the loss of "Date Added" and "Date Modified" metadata during the transfer process. So, I was thrilled to discover your tool as it seems to address this specific issue.
I carefully followed all the steps outlined in your guide https://libraet.samuelmok.cc/posts/endnote-export/.
However, when I reached step 6 and attempted to import the exported file into Zotero, I encountered an error message saying: "The selected file is not in a supported format."
Could you please help me troubleshoot this issue?
For context, I’m using:
EndNote 21
Zotero 7.0.24
Windows 10 (64-bit)
Thanks in advance for your time and assistance!
If I can provide any additional information, please let me know.
Best regards,
slobodan2806
Thank you very much for your prompt response.
As suggested, I’ve uploaded the two files — endnote_exporter.log and References_zotero_export.xml — to GitHub for your review.
Additionally, I’ve included EndNote_export_to_Zotero.xml, which was generated by exporting my EndNote library directly from EndNote (i.e., not using your endnote_exporter_v1.3.exe tool).
I wanted to share this third file as well because I noticed a significant difference in file size: the XML file generated with your tool is approximately 1.4 MB, while the direct export is about 2.4 MB. This may be helpful for comparison purposes.
Thank you again for your time and support.
Best regards,
slobodan2806
[EndNote_export_to_Zotero.xml](https://github.com/user-attachments/files/22971648/EndNote_export_to_Zotero.xml)
[endnote_exporter.log](https://github.com/user-attachments/files/22971650/endnote_exporter.log)
[References_zotero_export.xml](https://github.com/user-attachments/files/22971652/References_zotero_export.xml)
The problem I have now is that when I re-enable sync, all modified items will have their last modified date set to today. To avoid that, I used the Reset option with "Replace Online Library", assuming that this will simply push my local database to the cloud. But unfortnuately, the last modified date is also updated in this scenario.
How can I sync my local database without having the "date modified" updated?
How can I make sure that my changes are not overwritten during sync?
My understanding was that the server detects that the item has been modified and because the local Date Modified is earlier than the server’s Date Modified, it updates it updates it to today. But I’m just guessing how it works, hence my question here in the forum. If the expected behaviour is that my local changes should remain intact, that would make sense to me. The question, then, would be: is it a bug?
I can run the example script on the JS "how-to" page others have mentioned to change title, no problem. But if I run it to change dateAdded, it says "No items found".
Here's how I set up the first three lines:
var fieldName = "dateAdded";
var oldValue = "2026-02-26T01:44:47Z";
var newValue = "2024-06-30T01:44:47Z";
Does anything stand out as incorrect? I am baffled.
I got the field name and Zotero-style date by copy/pasting right from the output window by running another example, so they should be exact:
var items = Zotero.getActiveZoteroPane().getSelectedItems();
return items;