Saving a Compressed Copy of a Library
The Sync Feature provides a backup of your EndNote library, but if you have deleted references from your library and emptied the trash, they will also be deleted from the online copy of the library; if you have deleted references from the online library and emptied the trash, they will be deleted from the EndNote library at the next sync. Making a backup of your library at regular intervals ensures you have access to older material, if you ever need it.
You can save an EndNote library, including the filename.enl file, its associated .Data folder, and all of its contents, to a single compressed file in order to back up your library or to send a copy to a colleague. Later, you can restore the compressed library with EndNote.
Note: EndNote libraries larger than 4 gigabytes or 65,535 files cannot be compressed with EndNote’s Compressed Library command. See Saving a Copy of a Library for information on making backup copies of larger libraries.
Creating a Compressed Library File
- Open the library in EndNote.
- From the File menu, select Compress Library (.enlx) to display a Compress Library dialog.
- Use the radio buttons to determine these options:
- Specify whether you want to Create a compressed library or to Create & Email the library.
- Specify whether you want to save file attachments with the library or not.
- Specify whether you want to save all references to the compressed library, only selected references, or only the references in a specific group or group set.
- Click Next to display a file dialog.
- Save the compressed library to a folder on your hard drive. You can change the file name but you cannot use the following characters.
| Invalid Characters for Naming a Compressed Library |
|
|---|---|
| \ | back slash |
| / | forward slash |
| : | colon |
| * | asterisk |
| ? | question mark |
| " | quotation mark |
| < | less than |
| > | greater than |
| | | vertical bar |
- If you selected the Create & Email option, EndNote will launch your default email application, create a new email, and attach the compressed library file to the email. Enter additional information to the email, such as a recipient, subject, and message. Click the Send button.
Note: The Create & Email option will only work with desktop email applications. It will not work with online email sites. Emails attachment sizes may also be restricted by your email provider.
Restoring a Compressed Library File
Use EndNote to open the filename.enlx file, which will extract the .enl file and the .Data folder to the same folder where the .enlx file is located.
After restoring the compressed library, use EndNote to open the filename.enl file as you normally would to use the library.
Note: Be careful not to open the compressed library in the same location as an original library of the same name. This would overwrite the original library's .enl file and .Data folder when the compressed library is uncompressed.