.. image:: https://img.shields.io/badge/license-MIT-green.svg :target: https://github.com/herrlich10/men2zot/blob/master/LICENSE.txt

Overview

This package contains a few small Python scripts that help you deal with the problems you may encounter when you move from Mendeley to Zotero:

1. The associations with the PDF files are not preserved.
2. Both author-provided keywords and user-specified tags are imported as tags.
3. The dates you added the entries are not preserved.

This package is not a comprehensive tool that does all the jobs in one shot. But it indeed helped me solve all the above problems. At least, it can be used as the starting point for your own solution, as the Python codes are short and easy to read.

This package has no unusual dependencies beyond numpy and pandas. So it should work out of the box if you have Anaconda installed.

Bugs can be reported to https://github.com/herrlich10/men2zot. The code can also be found there.

Basic workflow

1. Export your Mendeley library as a bibtex file, e.g., test.bib.

.. note:: You may want to test on a small export with only a few items first.

2. Fix the bibtex file using fix_mendeley_bibtex.py:

.. code-block:: shell

python fix_mendeley_bibtex.py -i test.bib

3. Import the resulting test_fixed.bib into Zotero.

4. Transfer added date using mendeley2zotero.py:

.. code-block:: shell

python mendeley2zotero.py -m path/to/mendeley.sqlite -z path/to/zotero.sqlite

.. note:: This script works directly on the sqlite databases of both programs. Always backup your sqlite files before letting this script change them.

.. note:: In macOS, the default location for Mendeley sqlite file is "/Users/your_name/Library/Application Support/Mendeley Desktop/your_account@www.mendeley.com.sqlite", whereas the default location for Zotero sqlite file is /Users/your_name/Zotero/zotero.sqlite.

5. Check your Zotero library to see whether there are remaining problems.

Related works

Mendeley is a good reference manager in many ways. However, its limitations become increasingly unaffordable in recent releases. Among the top of the list is that it has the potential to lock its users in. It is not easy to get all your personal data out of Mendeley when you decide to leave. There are a few other projects out there already to mitigate these difficulties:

• Mendeley2Zotero_: written in Python, transfer dates, folders
• AdiosMendeley: written in R, transfer notes, dates, folders/collections, and PDF annotations

.. _Mendeley2Zotero: https://github.com/flinz/mendeley2zotero .. _Adios_Mendeley: https://github.com/rdiaz02/Adios_Mendeley

See also discussions in the Zotero forum:

• https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/63737/moving-library-from-mendeley-to-zotero
• https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/30349/import-pdfs-from-mendeley-to-zotero

I didn't create multiple folders (only use tags), nor create notes/highlights from within Mendeley (only use PDF reader). But I did have problems with PDF (attachment) associations and tags that the above authors did not mention. And unfortunately Mendeley2Zotero didn't work for me. So I created these simple Python scripts. Hope they helps. And I'm very happy to work with a fully open reference manager now~