FAQ: How to Recover Your EndNote Library

June 23 – Marie

Question:

I recently discovered one of my EndNote Libraries was deleted by accident. I had called the library yoga. I noticed the only file left in my EndNote Libraries folder under My Documents was yoga.data What is this file and can it help me to recreate my yoga EndNote Library.

Answer:

Yes, we can attempt to recreate your EndNote Library using the yoga.data folder. “.DATA” folders are created for each EndNote Library you make and contain contents that go along with your library such as PDF article full-text or images you may have attached within an EndNote citation or reference field.

• Open either Word pad or Note pad on your computer.
• A blank document is present. Do not type anything in it.
• Go to the top Menu and choose File > Save As.
• Save the blank document with the same name as your Endnote.data file, adding .enl to the name IN THE SAME AREA ON YOUR COMPUTER where the .data file exists. In this case you will name the file to be saved yoga.enl

The yoga.enl file now should appear with an EndNote icon. Double click to open it and see your recreated yoga library.

Background Info from EN re: .DATA file

Database 5: When I look in the folder where my library is saved I see the library as well as a folder that has the same name as my library, followed by “.Data”. What is this folder? Can I delete it?

Answer: With EndNote 8 and later, this .Data folder contains the library data structure, and should not be deleted. If you remove the .Data folder, the EndNote program will attempt to rebuild the .Data folder contents based on the information in the .enl library file. However, you will lose any customized term lists. If you are moving your library from one location to another, you will want to move both the .enl library file and the .Data folder to the new location.

If you are moving just the .enl file from one computer to another, and a .Data folder is already present on the destination computer, the EndNote program will read the database information from the existing .Data folder and not the updated .enl file. So, if you are not transferring the .Data folder with EndNote 8 or later, you may not actually update the library on the destination computer.

In all versions of EndNote this .Data folder contains any objects or images you have inserted into the Image field of a reference. If you delete this folder, or move the library without moving the .Data folder, you will lose these objects or images.