Recovering trashed plugin data

Pre-release

Trashing and restoring the container and a single timeline note was walked on 2026-10-07 against a test library, not against a real loss.

Your timelines are stored as Zotero note items under one container item per library. If that container or a note ends up in the trash, the plugin stops finding the data and the timeline list looks empty. Nothing is lost; Zotero's trash keeps the items until it is emptied.

Symptom

The timeline list is empty, or one timeline you know exists is missing, and you did not delete anything from inside the plugin.

Restore it

The preference that hides the container row from your item list does not apply to the trash, deliberately: hiding it there would empty the trash of the very items this procedure recovers. So the steps below work with the preference left on.

1. Click Trash in the left-hand pane of your Zotero library.
2. Sort by Date Modified so recently trashed items come first.
3. Look for the item titled "Zotero Timeline (plugin data)". It is the container, and the timeline notes are its children.
4. Right-click it and choose Restore to Library.
5. Nothing else. An open timeline tab lists the restored timelines again on its own; no restart or reopen is needed.

If you only lost one timeline, restore the individual note rather than the container.

If the trash has already been emptied

Emptying the trash is permanent locally. Two routes remain:

• You sync. Another synced machine that has not yet pulled the deletion still holds the items. Disconnect it from the network before opening Zotero, export the container and its children, then reconnect.
• You have a Zotero data directory backup. Zotero keeps zotero.sqlite.bak beside zotero.sqlite in your data directory. Restoring it rolls the whole library back, not just the plugin's items, so copy the directory aside first.

Why this can happen at all

The plugin's data is ordinary library items, which is what makes it sync without any configuration. The cost is that ordinary library operations, including a stray delete, apply to it too. See Why data lives in a note.