Upgrade StorageData loss
Hello — I need help with a data-loss issue in Zotero. Details below:
1. In my current data directory the newest zotero.sqlite is only 7 MB. There is also a copy from earlier today that is tens of MB， and another copy from a few days ago that is 48 MB.
2. I have a storage folder which contains subfolders for the items I used in Zotero today.
3. My Zotero data directory is on a custom E: drive.
Today I opened Zotero and found that my collections and the items inside them were missing. I deleted the current zotero.sqlite and replaced it with the larger file from earlier today, but when I reopened Zotero the missing content did not return — and the zotero.sqlite I had just copied in became 2 MB. I then turned off syncing and replaced the file again with the 48 MB copy from a few days ago; after opening Zotero it reverted to the state from a few days ago, but any data from the last few days is gone. Now I cannot use sync: as soon as I enable syncing the data is lost again.
Any advice on how to recover the recent data or how to safely get syncing working again would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
1. In my current data directory the newest zotero.sqlite is only 7 MB. There is also a copy from earlier today that is tens of MB， and another copy from a few days ago that is 48 MB.
2. I have a storage folder which contains subfolders for the items I used in Zotero today.
3. My Zotero data directory is on a custom E: drive.
Today I opened Zotero and found that my collections and the items inside them were missing. I deleted the current zotero.sqlite and replaced it with the larger file from earlier today, but when I reopened Zotero the missing content did not return — and the zotero.sqlite I had just copied in became 2 MB. I then turned off syncing and replaced the file again with the 48 MB copy from a few days ago; after opening Zotero it reverted to the state from a few days ago, but any data from the last few days is gone. Now I cannot use sync: as soon as I enable syncing the data is lost again.
Any advice on how to recover the recent data or how to safely get syncing working again would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
When you restore from a backup, Zotero will just sync down those deletions. You have to take steps to overwrite the online library. You should also always make a backup of all backup files before renaming them to zotero.sqlite.
https://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#restoring_from_the_last_automatic_backup
If you think this happened on a shared computer, you should clear any active application sessions.