I am synchronizing between two PCs using an external USB drive. I copy botn the .enl file and the corresponding folder. For several months it was OK, but a week ago I had the following error: "“This library appears to be damaged. Please verify that no other user has this library open simultaneously with write access. If this error persists after restarting EndNote, please repair the library using the ‘Recover Library’ on the ‘Tools’ menu.” A week ago I was able to repair the library using the “repair library” tool. However, today I again have the same database error, and now I can not even repair the library. NOne of my 5 libraries opens.
I recently upgraded to X4 and then installed an online update. The next time I tried to open my libraries they all returned this error.
This Library appears to be damaged, Please verify that no other user has this library open simultaneously with write access. If this error persists after restarting EndNote, please repair the library using the ‘Recover Library’ on the ‘Tools’ menu.
I did use the Tools->Recover tool, and it said that it had recovered several hundred items, When I tried to open the recovered database, it returned the same error again on the new database.
I tried another older database and received the error.
And as far as I know, this particular directory is has NOT been syncronized with another computer or file server.
So I suspect Endnote itself is corrupting these databases somehow. I’m going to uninstall Endnote and it’s updates and reinstall from the CD.
I have a staff member with the same problem. He’s installed X4 and is using Vista and Word 2007. At first everything was fine but then he is suddenly getting the ‘This Library appears to be damaged’ message. He’s tried the Recover tool but nothing changed.
When the Recover tool does not work, this means the library damage is too severe for the Recover tool to be effective. However, there is another thing you can try. First, carefully make a back up of both your library file and its associated .Data folder, which should be in the same folder. Then, copy just the .Data folder to the desktop. Next, use the steps here to see if you can recover the library this way:
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The only thing I would add, is to not put the DATA folder on the desktop, but to move it to a place that isn’t deep in the folder structure (preferably where you want it to live, so you don’t have to move it again!). But mostly, this is because the “desktop” path includes a huge number of characters (i.e. "documents and Settings/username, etc) and since the PDF file names are doubled because they are in folders of the same name - you can quickly run a foul of the max number of characters in a file name allowed by the Windows system.
"“This library appears to be damaged. Please verify that no other user has this library open simultaneously with write access. If this error persists after restarting EndNote, please repair the library using the ‘Recover Library’ on the ‘Tools’ menu.”
I’m using Endnote X6 and all worked fine untill yesterday. The Database was on GDrive. I now learned it’s better not to have it there…
Repair Tool does not work. Renaming .enl and .DATA neither, also not in different location. All the pdf files are in the DATA directory though but pretty useless withouth a database…