How to copy my entire zotero library to group zotero library?

Samyavc
Hi everyone,

My colleagues would like to start using zotero and we want to have a group library. However, I had all relevant papers and subfolders created in a personal library. How do I share this personal library in the group? Or can I change the type of my library from personal to group?

Thank you!
  • dstillman
    You can select all items and drag them to the group library, and then drag each top-level collection. (It's not currently possible to copy all collections at once, but that's planned.)
  • Samyavc
    I see, thank you!
  • Mika21Rueda
    Hello, what about the PDF documents, notes and highlights that we have in our private library, how can we share them in our group library?
  • RamonMi
    There are some checkboxes in Settings-General-Groups. You can decide on the child parts to share in your group library.
  • garabedian
    Hello everyone,

    I have just begun copying my personal library to a group library I just created of which I am currently the only owner and user. In the beginning, I would drag and drop collection by collection and they would copy nicely into the new group library, with all items and attachments. But at a certain point, this procedure stopped working. I have an unlimited storage plan. Could anyone helpt? Thanks.
  • dstillman
    @garabedian: If you've already dragged a collection, dragging it again won't do anything. (A future version might improve things to allow previously dragged collections to be updated, though it's a complicated problem.)
  • monicaortenzi
    In my case, the drag-and-drop does not work. Is it supposed to work on the website or only on the desktop app?
    I tried to move one collection or a subcollection; in neither case the items were transferred to the group library
  • Benito_04
    Hi everybody,
    This thread is precisely about my current problem.
    But as it was initiated more than 2 years ago, hence before version 7 has been released, the solution may have changed.
    I currently maintain a personal Library (“My Library”) and would like to share it with some colleagues as a Group Library (it contains about 1000 entries).
    What would be the best way to transfer not only all the items (metadata and pdf files), but also the notes and, above all, the Collection hierarchy as well as the contents of each Collection folder to a brand-new Group Library?
    I thought of two ways, what is the best? (a third more optimised solution is of course welcome).
    • The first would be, as suggested by @ dstillman above, to manually drag and drop all the items and then all the top-level collections from My Library to the new Group Library.
    - Would this preserve the hierarchy and contents of the collections?
    - What about the pdf files (all of them are stored files within Zotero data directory)
    - @ dstillman mentioned in 2023 that “it was not possible to drag all the collections at once but that was planned”. Has this limitation been fixed?
    • The other way would consist in exporting My Library as Zotero RDF format, including notes and pdf and re-importing it in the new Group Library.
    What would you advise?
    Thank you in advance for your help
  • dstillman
    edited 2 days ago
    @Benito_04: Nothing has changed from the above, and that's still what we would recommend.

    Make sure you have all files locally (i.e., you've either added all files on this computer or are using the default "at sync time" file syncing mode).
  • Benito_04
    Thank you @dstillman for your quick answer.
    So I understand that doing so:
    1 - the hierarchy and contents of the collections will be preserved
    2 - The notes will be transferred
    3 - Providing the fact the pdf are store locally within Zotero db, they will be duplicated in the Group Library
    4 - We still have to drag and drop each top-level collection (the limitation has not been corrected yet)

    Correct ?

    Last: I understand as well that exporting the personal Library in RDF format and re-importing it in the Group Library is not recommended.

    Why? It looks a "smart" solution
  • dstillman
    edited 2 days ago
    Because even Zotero RDF export/import can cause unexpected changes to fields. The only way to do an exact copy is by dragging. Zotero also stores internal links that will enable more sophisticated copying/updating of data between libraries in a future version.
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