Local import from Mendeley broken

lorenzana · 2025-08-24T17:37:42+00:00

Hi,
I have used Mendeley for a while and would like to migrate to zotero using the local method as I store my files locally. Unfortunately, the instructions in https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/mendeley_local_import
do not work anymore because the Mendeley Desktop 1.18 installers are not any more available. The links are broken, or download the 1.19 version. It would be fantastic if somebody can post the 1.18 version. I need linux. The Windows version is available here https://filehippo.com/download_mendeley/1.18/
If somebody has o finds the 1.18 linux version, I will be very grateful. Thanks!

dstillman · 2025-08-25T02:52:47+00:00

You're misreading that page. See Step 1:

1. Make sure you've synced all data and files in your current version of Mendeley. Syncing data alone isn't enough, since Mendeley sync doesn't make any information about attached files available unless you actually sync the files themselves.

and

5. Open Mendeley Desktop 1.18 and perform a fresh sync to pull down your Mendeley data from the Elsevier servers.

You'd need to sync all your data and files to Mendeley servers and sync them back down into 1.18 regardless, so you should just use the default online importer.

I've updated the text to make this clearer.

lorenzana · 2025-08-25T07:08:05+00:00

Thanks. It looks confusing now as it recommends to use Mendeley Desktop 1.18 which is not available. Shouldn't you say that this method is not anymore feasible?

dstillman · 2025-08-25T11:51:13+00:00

I mean, it's feasible if you can find the installers. There's no point deleting the instructions immediately until it's clear that there's no other way to download them from a trusted source. We make it clear that this method isn't recommended, but it can help in some rare cases — e.g., where people have had problems logging in via the default importer due to how their Mendeley institutional account was configured.