Retrieving purged files

lucydabbs
Hi,

My computer recently broke and requires a new hard drive. My Zotero on my laptop was synced so I could retrieve my PDFs online but the storage was full so I purged it in order to sync just the specific PDFs I required. However, now my laptop hard drive is lost I will have lost the local files from that laptop. Long story short, I'm wondering if there is any way of retrieving the files I purged, most of them were previously synced and I only recently purged them. Is there anyway of restoring that data? Is it lost forever unless I can access the local files and resync, or is there some sort of way of 'un-purging'.

Thanks - Lucy
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    Note that purging storage has one specific purpose: to stop using Zotero Storage in My Library so that you can use it in groups. It's not a way to sync just specific files.

    But we've restored the files you purged. You're now over your quota and won't be able to sync additional files, and files above your quota may be removed online.
  • lucydabbs
    Hi, I tried to login and sync on a different computer and they didn't load.
  • lucydabbs
    I think I may have accidentally overrided it by pressing sync. I'm so sorry. Do you mind seeing if they can be restored again?
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited yesterday at 2:17pm
    Can you provide a Debug ID for an attempt to open a file that fails?

    To be clear, you're above your file storage quota, so some files may not have ever been uploaded. You can see the files that are available in the online library.

    You didn't override anything. All the files that are available to restore have been restored.
  • lucydabbs
    There are no files available to load. They were available on the web library but then once I clicked onto my Zotero app on my computer and clicked sync, they all disappeared.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    That's unrelated to purging files. You also appear to have just deleted most of the items in your library. The only way you could restore those would be by restoring from a backup (e.g., one of the automatic backups Zotero makes).
  • lucydabbs
    How do I do that? Is there a way you could just restore the files again that you just restored?
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited yesterday at 2:29pm
    I linked to instructions. You deleted nearly all the items in your library. (I'm not sure why?) We don't have a backup, but Zotero makes automatic local backups that you may be able to restore from.

    Again, this has nothing to do with the files we relinked. These are actual library items that you deleted.
  • lucydabbs
    What about the files that you just restored? Is there no way I can now get those files back? I didn't mean to delete anything I just tried to sync the files to this computer.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited yesterday at 2:36pm
    Items and files are separate things. You deleted the actual items in your library (either by manually deleting them and emptying the trash or by running Replace Online Library from a mostly empty local library), so there are no longer any attachment items to relink the files to.

    You definitely did not just sync. That would never delete items on its own.

    I linked to instructions for restoring from a backup and overwriting online data from the restored local data.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    All the remaining items in your library were created a few days ago, so I'd guess that you ran Replace Online Library from the new computer with only items you added there. That would do exactly what it says — replace the online library with the local data — and overwrite anything you had previously synced. Your only option then would be to restore from some other copy of your Zotero data on another computer where the data actually existed.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited yesterday at 2:42pm
    (I would strongly encourage you in the future not to click on advanced, destructive-sounding features if you don't understand exactly what they do. "Purge Storage in My Library" and "Replace Online Library" are intended for very specific situations, and neither were things that you wanted to use here. "Replace Online Library" also tells you exactly how many items it will delete before you use it.)
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