Migrating your Papers1 Library to Papers2
Congratulations on upgrading to Papers2!
Migrating your Papers1 library to Papers2 is easy, just follow the steps below and you will have Papers2 set up in no time.
Migrating your Papers1 library the first time you start Papers2:
When Papers2 starts for the first time, and if Papers1 is still installed on your computer, Papers2 will prompt you to import your Papers1 library.
Note that if you don't have Papers1 installed on the same Mac or if Papers1 it is not setup to display your current Papers1 library you will have to do this first.
Click on "update" and your entire Papers1 library will be imported into Papers2. This does not affect your library in Papers1, and you can still continue to use Papers1 as you did before.
How to migrate your library if you skipped the migration step in Papers2:
Warning
If you skipped updating your library the first time you started Papers2, you can still migrate your Papers1 library to Papers2. For this, we will need to make sure your Papers2 library will not be reloaded by Papers2 and will be ignored by the program, so that it will start with a fresh new library. This means you will need to delete your Papers2 library folders. If you have already added PDFs to your Papers2 library, those will be removed by the following steps. Thus, you may need to first make a copy of your current library folder in a different location on your hard drive to be able to add back the PDFs later.
Locate your library
Before removing your library, you should locate your Papers2 library file using the Finder:

Typically, the folder will be at the following path, which will be assumed to be the case in the rest of the instructions: /Users//Documents/Papers2 (or it will be next to your Papers1 library in another location)
This folder also contains the library.papers2 folder, as well as all documents you might have added to Papers2 since installing it and that you may want to copy before the next steps.
Instructions
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quit Papers2 if it's running (also make sure the Manuscripts icon is gone in the menu bar, which may require you turn Manuscritps off in the preferences)
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throw away the preference file /Users//Library/Preferences/com.mekentosj.papers2.plist
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throw away the folder /Users//Documents/Papers2 (or the folder you located above)
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throw away the folder /Users//Library/Application Support/Papers2
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Start Papers2 again. You should be prompted to import your library from Papers1, which will start after you click 'Get Started' and then 'Update'
Note that on OS 10.7 Lion, to access your Library folder, you need to use the Go menu in the Finder and press the option key. This will add a 'Library' item to the list, and will give you access to the hidden folder.
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Getting Started
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Registration and activation
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Read. Write. Cite.
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Search & Discover
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Tutorials
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Pro Tips
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How To
- Change the way your PDF files are automatically named
- Move your library to a different location or new Mac
- Configure Papers to work with your library proxy
- Use the bookmarklet to import papers from your web browser to Papers
- Sync Papers for Mac with your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch
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Troubleshooting
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Papers Livfe
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Papers for iPhone and iPad
- Setup syncing with Papers for Mac (Versions up to 1.9.8)
- Importing your research from Dropbox to your iOS device
- Highlighting and taking notes in Papers for iPad
- Creating collections on Papers for iPad and moving papers to collections
- Configuring Papers for iOS to work with your library proxy
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Papers for iPhone & iPad videos
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Roadmap
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New Releases
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Release Notes
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Papers1
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Papers for Windows
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Registration & Activation
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Importing & Exporting