How would I be able to find them on the computer? there was no warning before it closed, but I also didnt' mean to close it so I hoping to still find them.
Zotero saves all data locally automatically. If you were using it on a computer, your data would still be in Zotero on that computer unless you deleted it somehow (e.g., by accidentally deleting your Zotero database while using some disk cleaning tool).
Your description here is just a bit confusing. Are you actually talking about something happening after syncing, or are you talking about opening Zotero and not seeing data you had saved previously?
See Locating Missing Zotero Data. If you provide the information requested at the end, we may be able to tell you more.
Hi Sorry, I was not logged in when I added all the citations and then I clicked sync to save them, but since I wasn't logged in, it prompted me to log in which I did. After logging in I closed Zotero and then opened it back up and saw only citations from before without the ones added recently
You're misremembering some part of this. Zotero permanently and immediately saves all items, either to the desktop app if you have it open or to the online library if the desktop app is closed and you give it permission to do so. Nothing about closing the app would affect whether items are saved — anything you see is already saved.
In your online library, you have a few items from 2023, a few from 2024, and one item from today. If you're using a desktop app that's synced with this account, you should see the same thing there.
If you're looking for other data, you'd have to say more about when you've used Zotero and what you're looking for, and you should provide the info requested in Locating Missing Zotero Data.
There's no such thing as needing to sync before closing the app. Again, all data is saved immediately. You're going to have to trust me on that.
Your screenshot shows a new, empty data directory that's either never been used before or was recently wiped. So one of three things happened:
1) You deleted your Zotero data directory — again, perhaps by using some disk cleaning tool.
2) You switched to a different data directory from the one you were using before. That's an advanced setting, and you should know if you did that.
3) You actually switched sync accounts. If you switched accounts, Zotero warned you that it would delete all local data for the old account, required you to check a checkbox saying "Remove all data for “[old account]” from this computer", and said to make sure you either had uploaded any data to the old account before continuing or had a backup of your Zotero data directory. Assuming one of those is the case, you can restore by either switching back to the old account or restoring from the backup. If not, I'm afraid there'd be no way to recover the data.
(3) you mean? Again, that makes you check a "Remove all data from “[old account]” from this computer" checkbox, so there's no indication that anything would be merged. But you should check the old account, in case you were actively syncing.
No what the deleted comment mentioned. I wasn't logged into any account and added all the citations. Then I logged into my account to save the data to it (no checkbox for deleting data because I was actively saving the data) and expected they would be added to the account I logged into. There is no old account as I wasn't logged into anything when adding the data initially.
No, the deleted comment was from a community member and was incorrect — that's why it was deleted. The possibilities are what I said above. I promise you there is no other possibility.
I thought IT was supposed to help when the system doesn't work, but you seem to just believe it always works - None of your possibilities describe my problem I promise you, what he described is exactly what happened. I know that's not what is supposed to happen which is why I reached out in the first place. I think you need to re-read my issue and look into why the data didn't merge from when I was not logged in to the account I logged into.
That person didn't know what they were talking about — they shouldn't have chimed in. Syncing a populated local library with a new account does not, and cannot, delete the local data. It is not possible. And if it did, it wouldn't result in what your screenshots show, which is an empty data directory with no copies of the database from before today.
The only ways to end up with an empty data directory are the ones I list above. This isn't about some system working or not working — something has to actively delete the files on disk, and there's no code in Zotero to do that other than 1) switching sync accounts or 2) unlinking a sync account and choosing to delete all local data.
If you're sure you never had another account other than the one you're currently using, and you're sure you weren't using a custom data directory, you would've had to have somehow deleted the data directory outside of Zotero. People do that fairly often by running disk-cleanup tools.
(You also haven't provided all the info requested in Locating Missing Zotero Data — e.g., if there are folders in 'storage' from your past usage of Zotero. That would tell us a little more about exactly what happened.)
You still don't understand. I got a new computer recently and just downloaded Zotero on it. I had used it previously on my old computer which is where the old data is from. After downloading the app, I added new references. Then, I clicked sync and it prompted me to log in, which I did. Nothing changed or happened on my screen, and I then closed the app. Then I opened the app and only saw the old data and not the new references. I can assure you this is possible, but I believe the data is unrecoverable so have a good night.
OK, so first, this is the first you've mentioned multiple computers this entire thread. I'm not sure why you waited 19 comments to mention that? We could've saved a bunch of time talking about the contents of the data directory and disk-cleaning utilities.
In any case, if you have a new computer with data that hasn't synced, and you set up syncing with an existing account, it will absolutely merge data. That is the only way it can work. Zotero only syncs explicit deletions, so a sync can never delete existing items — there's just no way for it to do that. It downloads the remote data and uploads the local data.
However, if you first set up syncing on the new computer with a different account — say, one for your personal email address — and then realized that was the wrong account and then switched to this account, Zotero would've warned you that it would delete local data, and then if you proceeded you would've ended up with just the old data from the old computer. If that happened, the new data would likely be in the new account, since you would've had to have synced once to get that warning.
Actually, looking at the server logs, it looks like you set up syncing a bunch of times over 10 minutes or so earlier today, which means you also unlinked your sync account a bunch of times. As I say above, unlinking an account also provides the option to delete local data, though it's not checked by default.
So then I'd guess what happened is that you 1) set up syncing one or more times, 2) didn't see your old data appear immediately, because you hadn't actually initiated a sync (by clicking the sync button in the toolbar or making a local change that kicked off auto-sync), 3) unlinked the sync account, and 4) checked the box to delete your local data. It would then do just that: delete the new items you had added locally. When it actually synced, it would have then pulled down the old items.
Some people get confused when syncing doesn't start immediately after setting up syncing, and I'd guess that that's what happened here. It needs to give people time to people configure some additional options after setting up syncing, but we're going to try to improve this to at least start syncing automatically when the settings window is closed.
But no matter what, you would've had to have chosen the option to delete local data for it to delete your data. Just syncing always merges your local and remote data. And I'm afraid there is indeed no way to recover the local data after you choose the option to delete it.
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Can you explain exactly where you're looking? In the web library or in the desktop app?
It looks like you synced the current account today for the first time in a couple years, so you may have multiple accounts.
Or, if you switched accounts, Zotero would have warned you that it was going to delete local data and made you confirm that before it let you proceed.
Your description here is just a bit confusing. Are you actually talking about something happening after syncing, or are you talking about opening Zotero and not seeing data you had saved previously?
See Locating Missing Zotero Data. If you provide the information requested at the end, we may be able to tell you more.
If you're looking for other data, you'd have to say more about when you've used Zotero and what you're looking for, and you should provide the info requested in Locating Missing Zotero Data.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u13114082/2jmrj75vexitlsqntzkj.png
Your screenshot shows a new, empty data directory that's either never been used before or was recently wiped. So one of three things happened:
1) You deleted your Zotero data directory — again, perhaps by using some disk cleaning tool.
2) You switched to a different data directory from the one you were using before. That's an advanced setting, and you should know if you did that.
3) You actually switched sync accounts. If you switched accounts, Zotero warned you that it would delete all local data for the old account, required you to check a checkbox saying "Remove all data for “[old account]” from this computer", and said to make sure you either had uploaded any data to the old account before continuing or had a backup of your Zotero data directory. Assuming one of those is the case, you can restore by either switching back to the old account or restoring from the backup. If not, I'm afraid there'd be no way to recover the data.
Those are the only possibilities.
The only ways to end up with an empty data directory are the ones I list above. This isn't about some system working or not working — something has to actively delete the files on disk, and there's no code in Zotero to do that other than 1) switching sync accounts or 2) unlinking a sync account and choosing to delete all local data.
If you're sure you never had another account other than the one you're currently using, and you're sure you weren't using a custom data directory, you would've had to have somehow deleted the data directory outside of Zotero. People do that fairly often by running disk-cleanup tools.
(You also haven't provided all the info requested in Locating Missing Zotero Data — e.g., if there are folders in 'storage' from your past usage of Zotero. That would tell us a little more about exactly what happened.)
In any case, if you have a new computer with data that hasn't synced, and you set up syncing with an existing account, it will absolutely merge data. That is the only way it can work. Zotero only syncs explicit deletions, so a sync can never delete existing items — there's just no way for it to do that. It downloads the remote data and uploads the local data.
However, if you first set up syncing on the new computer with a different account — say, one for your personal email address — and then realized that was the wrong account and then switched to this account, Zotero would've warned you that it would delete local data, and then if you proceeded you would've ended up with just the old data from the old computer. If that happened, the new data would likely be in the new account, since you would've had to have synced once to get that warning.
So then I'd guess what happened is that you 1) set up syncing one or more times, 2) didn't see your old data appear immediately, because you hadn't actually initiated a sync (by clicking the sync button in the toolbar or making a local change that kicked off auto-sync), 3) unlinked the sync account, and 4) checked the box to delete your local data. It would then do just that: delete the new items you had added locally. When it actually synced, it would have then pulled down the old items.
Some people get confused when syncing doesn't start immediately after setting up syncing, and I'd guess that that's what happened here. It needs to give people time to people configure some additional options after setting up syncing, but we're going to try to improve this to at least start syncing automatically when the settings window is closed.
But no matter what, you would've had to have chosen the option to delete local data for it to delete your data. Just syncing always merges your local and remote data. And I'm afraid there is indeed no way to recover the local data after you choose the option to delete it.