Notes: format completly broke

hypnotoad
Dear zotero-Community,

i'm very close to go nuts. I'm currently writing my BA-Thesis and opened zotero now (which i didn't use for a few months) to look at some of my old notes. Now every note looks like this:

\textlessp style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"\textgreater3. Gesellschaft als subjektive Wirklichkeit\textless/p\textgreater \textlessp\textgreater#############\textless/p\textgreater \textlessp style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"\textgreater3.1. Die Internalisierung der Wirklichkeit (139)\textless/p\textgreater \textlessp style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"\textgreater3.1.1. Primäre Sozialisation\textless/p\textgreater \textlessp style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"\textgreaterGesellschaft ist objektiv und subjektiv Wirklichkeit; beiden Aspekten wird nur gerecht, wer Gesellschaft als ständigen dialektischen Prozess sieht, der aus drei Komponenten besteht:\textless/p\textgreater \textlessul\textgreater \textlessli\textgreater \textlessp style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"\textgreaterExternalisierung\textless/p\textgreater \textless/li\textgreater \textlessli\textgreater \textlessp style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"\textgreaterObjektivation\textless/p\textgreater \textless/li\textgreater \textlessli\textgreater \textlessp style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"\textgreaterInternalisierung\textless/p\textgreater \textless/li\textgreater \textless/ul\textgreater \textlessp style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"\textgreater„Die primäre Sozialisation ist die erste Phase, durch die der Mensch in seiner Kindheit zum Mitglied der Gesellschaft wird. Sekundäre Sozialisation ist jeder spätere Vorgang, der eine bereits sozialisierte Person in neue Aussschnitte der objektiven Welt ihrer Gesellschaft einweist.“ (141)\textless/p\textgreater \textlessp style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"\textgreater„Jeder Mensch wird in eine objektive Gesellschaftsstruktur hineingeboren, innerhalb derer er auf jene 'signifikanten Anderen' trifft, denen seine Sozialisation anvetraut ist.“\textless/p\textgreater \textlessp style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"\textgreater„Mit anderen Worten ist das Selbst ein reflektiert-reflektierendes Gebilde, das die Einstellungen, die Andere ihm gegenüber haben und gehabt haben, spiegelt.“


In other words, the format is completly gone, no line breaking, no space charakters, just this "\textless/p\textgreater \textlessp style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"\textgreater"-rubbish. I tried to restore it with an old version, but it tells me that my datafile is to new (i read somewhere that once i upgraded it, you can't open it with previous versions).

So PLEASE, someone, help me! 2,5 years of note taking is lost otherwise (beside the fact that i have to write 2 chapters in 3 weeks for which i rely on those notes)...
  • adamsmith
    I'm a little confused by what you write towards the end - which Zotero version are you using? If you're using the most recent Zotero version, I don't see how you can get a "datafile to new" error message?
  • hypnotoad
    Thanks for the quick reply! I'm currently using the newest zotero version + firefox 4.0, so i thought i try to install 3.5 and an older zotero version, and than i got this error (now i realized that it's maybe a good idea to deinstall firefox completly and try this again)
  • RintzeRintze
    Just make sure you have a proper backup before trying to fix this: http://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#backing_up_your_zotero_library
  • adamsmith
    edited June 8, 2011
    no, don't start de-installing and installing things wildly - that's just going to waste your time - and indeed you won't be able to use your database with an older version of Zotero - though you can try doing this
    http://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data#restoring_from_the_last_upgrade_backup
    with an older version of Zotero (though I'd recommend doing that on FF 3.6 not 3.5)

    edit: and yes, definitely what Rintze says - make a back-up copy of your entire Zotero folder now and put it somewhere safe.
  • noksagt
    That looks like you have used BibTeX as an intermediate format at one time or another.
  • dstillman
    This is fixed in the latest version of the BibTeX translator, but yes, you only would've gotten that if you exported and reimported as BibTeX.
  • RintzeRintze
    So, with Zotero 2.1.7 (which I assume has the newest version of the translator), would re-exporting and importing solve the problem?
  • dstillman
    No. Even aside from the escaped codes—which I suspect would remain as literal backslashes—the notes were being exported as HTML before, which is why there are all the style attributes in there too.
  • RintzeRintze
    So what should hypnotoad do? Try loading the automatic backups of the Zotero library made during Zotero upgrades until he/she finds one where the notes are in the original state?
  • hypnotoad
    Hello everybody,

    thank you all very much for your help! I tried many irrational things before I got your hint with the bibtex-export, now i found an old rdf-backup which is missing a couple of books but the relevant notes are there. Phuh!
    I think Stillman is right: when i'm looking at the notes in the old rdf-file they are missing spaces, too; only if i create a report everything looks perfectly fine.. so i guess i really did something rather stupid once in a while when backing up.
  • noksagt
    now i found an old rdf-backup
    Just to be clear: that is an rdf export and not a backup. As per the previously linked documentation: backup by copying the zotero data directory when firefox is closed.
  • hypnotoad
    Thanks noksagt, to be honest i didn't read your link last time, but was clicking panic-stricken to get my notes back (and thought "yeah, sure, i know how to back up, i need to know if i can fix this somehow")

    "However, exporting and importing your library via RDF won't result in an exact copy of your library, and it isn't recommended as a back up strategy."

    ... now this i think points to the non-technical root of my formatting problem... ._.

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