A colleague has shared his library with me and it is the library I do my work on. I need constant access to this.
Due to Endnote server maintenance I get the error message “You do not have access to this library” now.
I know that this library and PDFs are stored locally at %USERPROFILE\AppData\Roaming\EndNote\ and it infuriates me that I should be prevented from accessing local data. This means that without an internet connection, for instance when traveling on conferences, I do not have access to my library? This is crazy!
Can anyone please advise me on a way to access my library while offline? Is it possible to change some part of the .Data folder to give my offline availability?
The server appears to be back online and so’s access to Endnote Web/Online.
Which version of Endnote are you using? And did your colleague the email the Endnote library file with the corresponding.DATA folder as a compressed file? Or is he sharing his library by “inviting” you to access the library via Endnote Online? If the library is on Endnote Online you should download the library to your computer in order to continue working while off-line.
My colleague has shared his library with me through Endnote online, so I need to go to File->Open Shared Library to get to our library. We are 10 people collaborating on this shared library.
I realise that the shared library is stored in its entirety on my harddrive on C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\EndNote\Libraries. In that directory, there is an EndNote “ENTL” file, and a .Data folder with the same name. Everything looks identical to my colleague’s original ENL library and .Data folder and the total size approaches 10 GB. This is not something we share over email. But if I open this ENTL file, EndNote first tries to sync, and if it fails, for example if the internet connection is out, or if servers are on maintenance, Endnote does not open the library.
This is strange to me. I have the physical copy of the database, EndNote only transmits changes over the network, why not give me access to read the database as it is stored on my computer?
usually the pointer file has an .enl, if you are trying to open a desktop version. But you may want to turn off syncing in the preferences before you open it, so it doesn’t trigger the sync step.
There is one “hack” I am going to test tomorrow. If anyone can test it now, on a Shared Library, that would be great.
Just a demonstration of what is going on…
Take any library you have on your computer. Open it and make a copy, let’s call this “Library.enl”
Now, rename this library and data folder as such:
Library.enl -> Library.entl
Library.Data -> Library.entl Data
Now try to open it with EndNote. It will instantly complain that you don’t have access to this library, regardless of whether you have sync on or not, because sync only applies to a single library that you have selected. And if the “access check” fails, it will not show you the contents of the database. This is what is happening to me on library that someone shared with me. There is not structural changes here, only a bug that prevents me from opening that library without an internet connection.
What if you do the reverse? What if you go to \AppData\Roaming\EndNote\Libraries\shared library.entl and rename it so that
sharedlibrary.entl -> sharedlibrary.enl
sharedlibrary.entl Data -> sharedlibrary.Data
Does that work for anyone? You may need to cut the network connection to test this.
So, I tested a workaround that only involves making a copy of the shared library stored in \AppData\Roaming\EndNote\Libraries, and renaming the file extension from .entl to .enl.
This works. EndNote then allows you to open the library, even without internet connection. So at any point you may copy your shared library and just rename it to gain offline access.
Of course the ideal behaviour from EndNote is just to allow offline, desynchronized, access to a shared library. I don’t know why EndNote has this block and I consider it a bug.