Mendeley encrypts users' database after Zotero provides an importer

Luckily, my Linux desktop was still running an old version of Mendeley so I was able to make the switch.

My reason for wanting to switch was that Zotero has Google Docs integration. After making the switch, I was pleased to pay a modest amount for storage of my PDFs, which makes me feel like a customer instead of a product.

Reading through that, it seems like Mendeley uses SQLite for it's local database.

There aren't that many SQLite encryption libraries around (generalising), so it's probably using either SQLCipher or SEE.

https://www.zetetic.net/sqlcipher

https://www.sqlite.org/see/doc/trunk/www/index.wiki

There's a reasonable chance the page size and passphrase is stored or cached on the machine. If someone (not me) takes the time and effort to trace through the application, it should be feasible to figure out what's going on. :)

Zotero has improved a lot, while Mendeley has repeatedly regressed.

Mendeley used to be quite a good program, but recently you can not export annotated PDFs meaningfully. For example, sending a folder of annotated PDFs to a co-author during a literature review is impossible. This is obviously the case since Elsevier does not want you to trade research papers, whether you have lawfull access or not.

The updates that took away features were silent. What happened to me some time ago was these updates occured during a high-stress phase with a short deadline until conference submissions (if you are a researcher, you know what I mean).

I had used Mendeley for years to annotate and categorize literature. I was now in need to send my categorized PDFs to a central repository for my co-authors to evaluate and add to. After some update, without me noticing it, it was no longer possible to export folders of PDFs or PDFs in general!

I had everything in Mendeley, weeks of work. I was completely f'ed - deadline approaching. I had to re-aquire all PDFs and go through all annotations by hand.

ELSEVIER IS SIMPLY ANTI SCIENCE. Collaboration is a key in science. Sharing results, research and literature is crucial.

Mendeley makes this impossible. It does NOT allow you to fully access your own work!

So in conclusion, USE ZOTERO. It's good now, better than before. You can use a PDF reader with annotations to open and save the PDF and Zotero will keep those annotations. You can export Bibliographies, including notes AND files. You can not do that with Mendeley.

So again, as a researcher, I emplore you to drop Mendeley completely, as I have done.

Thank you.

Portability is explicitly mentioned as an exception to the "no RE" clauses of the DMCA, so I wouldn't expect any charge to stick, but I don't expect that fact to deter Elsevier from suing anyway, out of spite.

"Ah, Elsevier" was my exact reaction as well.

Nothing more frustrating than lazy business models undermining progress.