Endnote X9 on Catalina - can't create new library or open one (new to Endnote!)

Hi everyone,

Having worked on Mendeley for years and Zotero the last year and not being 100% happy with either, I’ve decided to give Endnote a go. But after mocking about for a few days I’m close to already giving up! 

I have X9.3.3 and can’t even get started. When I want to create a new library I get the notice “Failed to create library: “/Users/Disloe/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/My EndNote Library.enl”.”

And when I try to import a library from Zotero (RIS file) literary nothing happens.

If anyone could give some advice that would be great, google has been quite useless on this particular subject. 

Thanks!

An EndNote library should not be stored or created in a cloud location. Please see the following KB https://support.clarivate.com/Endnote/s/article/EndNote-Reference-Manager-ProCite-Compatibility-with-Dropbox-and-other-Cloud-storage?language=en_US

Once you open EndNote and go to File then New you will want to try creating the new library in Applications or even create a folder in Applications called Libraries first.

You should not get any error if you change the location of where EndNote is trying to create the library.

Once you have the library open and are trying to import a RIS file you may need to look at the following KB so you can get the correct Import Option set.

https://support.clarivate.com/Endnote/s/article/EndNote-Mac-File-Import-Options-button?language=en_US

You will want to use Reference Manager (RIS).

If you continue to have issues with EndNote then Please contact Technical Support directly:

1-800-336-4474 option 4 then 1

or

https://endnote.com/contact/

We are here to help whenever you run into issues.

Hi Tony,

Thank you for the incredibly fast response.

I wasn’t aware Endnote doesn’t play nice with iCloud, where all my folders are automatically backed-up on. But it fixed the initial issue, thank you! However, I’ve always had my entire library (hundreds of articles) stored on iCloud because I’m just not disciplined enough to make a regular backup on an external hard drive. What would you advise to be the best way to backup my bibliography online in combination with Endnote?  

Thanks

You can set up EndNote to automatically sync your library to EndNote’s servers. Go to Preferences > Sync to set it up. You’ll need an EndNote account in order to use sync.

Once you’ve set up synching, it works somewhat similarly to Mendeley in that you can also access your library through a web interface.

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you can’t use cloud drives with endnote.