I was going to switch but decided not to yet because it does not allow you to filter by tags. It is one of the most useful ways to find papers in your library.

Rodrigo Bernal I have almost completely switched, but I'm currently using both. As I become a Mendeley advisor Elsevier gave me 7.5 Gb of storage plan which enables me to use M RM also as reader for articles.

The improvement in the cite as you write plugin is remarkable. Hence, if you do not consider to subscribe a plan, but consider to benefit from the plugin, I suggest to use the Desktop version to store, read and organize your library, then sync this library – without uploading attachments – through the cloud and use the brand new city as you write plugin.

yes I am agree with you.

we can use both version according to our need and type of question.

Will probably keep both. The new interface is quite nice, it brings some variety :). It also comes with new features that are very useful. Nevertheless, the new version doesn't allow you to continue citing on "Desktop" cited documents.

Hi Vicenzo,

In agreement with what others have expressed, I think it is best to keep both. How long this will be possible we may not know for now. But as Advisors, we can raise these concerns with the developers and see what the long-term plans for MRM are.

Why can't the Manager keep the original Desktop functionaliy? Although the Manager's interface looks better. It's a bit cumbersome to keep two programs at the same time.

MS word plugin can not be installed in MRM, you have to Mendeley cite shown in separately.

I keep my documents in dropbox and not inside mendeley - as far as I can see that 's not possible in MRM

In Mendeley Desktop you can search the contents of attached pdfs across all of your references in the library in one step. This is a killer feature that is not availabe in MRM (or in Zotero). Until MRM has this feature, I can't see making the switch. MRM now lets you store pdfs locally, so maybe this feature will come eventually. I am concerned that they have essentially ceased development of Desktop.

should keep using both

I am afraid we have to switch from Mendeley Desktop to MRM, since the development of MD seems stopped.

Just switched to Zotero and I must say after getting the hang of a few plugins this looks very nice, I'm not going back.

I must slightly amend my comment above. Zotero does index and search attached pdf files. But whereas Mendeley shows you excerpts of the search results all in one window, Zotero just gives a list of pdf files that contain the search item. You then have to open them one by one to search again and see the hit result in context. Slower, but doable.

If you use a Mac, then bibdesk https://bibdesk.sourceforge.io, is probably the best. This works only for latex.

Hope they do not discard functionalities from MD when MRM will be the only option. For the moment I am staying with MD.

The improvement I found in MRM when comparing with MD is the possibility to directly export the reference to the Microsoft Word format (* .xml). This could already be done using JabRef (https://www.jabref.org/), which I consider a more complete reference manager.

JabRef has something that is missing in Mendeley: fetch complete bibliographic information based on ISBN. But have not tried it yet.

MRM is missing many things that are very useful, in MD you can search inside PDF, it possible to filter the Journals and many other things

I just started using MRM. Although using MD for a long time and got accustomed to it, but Offline storage feature is very helpful and also MD seems much more friendly till now. So staying with MD for now.....albeit, installed both !

From my experience as a mac user, the MRM is a really premature release in even the basic functionalities, like binding the search option with cmd+f

So MD is much better than MRM and zotero if your involving local storage and offline storage

I've set up Zotero with storage of pdfs in a cloud folder (google drive but could be others). I think this setup far surpasses both Mendeley solutions which I previously used.

I installed both but continue using MD

I think MD is more comfortable than MRM

MD mucho más funcional y dinámico que MRM

thanks for the info guys. I am confused on how my desktop has two Mendeley Apps. I think I will just stick to MD as I wouldn't want to jeopardize the current setting, references and files already in my MD.

I Switched to Mendeley Reference Manager and really regret it; both offline and online versions are very clunky compared with MD; it does not auto-fill tags the way MD does. It is definitely lower quality. Am now investigating Zotero, or going back to MD

I also regret switching to MRM; it is much less intuitive to use than MD. I'm actually going back to Endnote.

I think both versions have it's own pros and cons. But, one thing I noticed is that, when I try to integrate Mendeley RM with MS Word, it asks for user details including phone numbers. There is no plugin for Mendeley integration with MS Word. BTW, Zotero is also a better replacement for Mendeley.

I also regret switching to MRM. It has completely destroyed my existing work by reformatting all in-text citations and adding duplicate/triplicate citations at the start and end of some paragraphs. I am now in the process of painstakingly comparing my work against earlier drafts in an effort to correct this. I have uninstalled MRM and reverted to Desktop, which I luckily did not delete.

I've already Uninstalled MRM. Couldn't install desktop on windows 11, so beware!. If the the old Desktop Version doesn't work I will be giving up Mendeley altogether.

I'll use mendeley desktop until it is available and switch to zotero right after that. It works perfectly with my exsisting database.

I can't find any way to set up a Watched Folder in MRM, which was one of my favorite features of MD. The automatic renaming of pdf files according to date, author, and title made it easy to find and share files with others later, and helped keep my pdfs folder tidy. I don't understand the reasoning behind removing this feature!

Desktop

I have recently switched to MRM because of a new Macbook, and I hate it. The search function doesn't always work. Thanks for the feedback, I am going to switch back to Desktop, at least temporarily. I read that Desktop doesn't work with IOS Bigsur, so that will probably become a problem in the near future...

I have a Mac with Monterey and Desktop works with that. It also worked with Big Sur.

Thanks, I can't get it downloaded in Big Sur, and are being directed to a web-version that looks like the Reference Manager, not the Desktop...

Ah sorry, I thought you still had the desktop dmg. I guess you were unable to migrate it from the old to new Mac? I checked for the dmg file on my mac…I don’t still have it or else I’d share it with you. :-(

Thanks, I'll survive, have an outstanding query now with the Mendeley people.

Saskia Middeldorp Mendeley Desktop still working with Mac OS 12.0.1 in both intel i5 and Apple M1 computers. I don't have any issue.

I switched from Mendeley Desktop to the Reference Manager only to switch 2d later completely to Zotero.

I can't recommend Mendeley Reference Manager.

MRM looks better, but MD has important functions such as Look for duplicates and Update details. You can filter by author, tag, keywords, etc. For me, MRM is better than MD... for now

I was introduced to MRM due to an error of our IT guy, who installed it on my new computer instead of MD, which I requested. After two weeks of using it I am going to tell him to correct his mistake.

All in all, MRM is probably slightly more cool looking as E. Miguel Díaz de León Muñóz pointed out. If you are waiting for more upside from me, then I am sorry, but I did not find anything of importance worth mentioning. Integration into Word environment is not an major change for me, certainly not worth installing it and certainly not switching to. I am also missing a lot of original functionality (offline files and repo (duplicate removal, keywords and tags, etc.). Maybe I would find the way how to live without these, but I do not see any reason why.

I have just installed reference manager as desktop is not longer supported for Macs.

While the interface looks clean, it is far less intuitive and many of the details are far worse.

I think the citation integration with MS Word is far worse IMO. Your internet connectivity can really slow things down.

While you can still drag and drop pdf files into reference manager, there is not obvious way to attach these files to an entry that has already been created.

The annotation functions work in a far inferior way.

It's a shame, because the desktop version was so intuitive and far easier to use than rival reference manager software, but this new version has reduced functionality, is not as easy to use, and relies on an internet connection.

All in all, it's two steps backwards.

I think a big issue is where our data is now maintained. There were some discussions some years ago about Mendeley's motivations for migrating from a local database copy with sync up to their servers (Desktop model) and the new model (Reference Manager) of the data only existing on their servers. There was a time when you could just run MongoDB and access your own data (carefully! best as read-only). This is useful if, for example, you'd like to extract information to make notecards, exchange things, or even -- and this is the big thing -- migrate your work to another platform like Zotero and Endnote.

Once they had moved to the new model, they password-protected the local database. That is further evidence that one of their main motivations was to keep people from migrating to competitors. I had to threaten them once with European data laws for them to release a copy of my database. You may still have the option to threaten them even under the new Reference Manager, but I still wonder why it needs to be this way in the first place. The data belongs to us. Is there a way to export everything from the web copy? Furthermore, the local copy was obviously much faster and did not require even being connected to the network. Elsevier has some explaining to do.

I actually ran a workshop on using reference manager yesterday, and the feedback from students was not positive.

One student in the class was running the old desktop version and it was clearly easier to use. For example, having static panes which are always visible is far more functional than having panes that pop up and have to be closed down, by scrolling back up to the top of the page. It seems as if it has been developed by someone who has little experience of using reference management software and who perhaps is more experienced with developing apps for small devices with little real estate on the screen. I find this funny, as most academics likely have the luxury of a decent size computer screen.

I will also add that between around 2017 and 2019 -- just as they were working on the new product -- I engaged in several drawn-out, heated videoconferences with Elsevier's leadership on the Mendeley product (mainly Olivier, Gaby, and a number of their staff), attempting to knock some sense into them. At a time when they could have figured out a compromise, they afforded me a lot of time to show them extensive feedback and discussion of why the changes they were proposing were detrimental. In the end they stuck 100% to their original plan and my influence was negligible to none. In other words, they were not listening to users then and they are not listening now.

I still think local storage is essential both for performance and data sovereignty, and I still think the right of the user to control and migrate data trump any ostensible design improvements (of which I think there are perhaps zero, for clients). I for one, and many of us longtime users, seem to understand what the Mendeley leadership never did understand: there was a rationality in Victor Henning's team's design that younger designers with their new "webkit" mentality tend to totally miss. Desktop is tighter and its feature set much more carefully thought through than Reference Manager. We've gone a huge step back, and if they ever kill support for Desktop, I'm taking me and a lot of affiliated labs with me -- and I'll have to sue if I must, to get every bit of our data. Or, they will start talking more openly about data access, add-ons, and a continued free model. But I wouldn't ever hold my breath.

I’ve been using using jabref for over a decade. In general I like jabref but I’ve experimented with Mendeley. After few attempts, all the niceties and comfort did not made up for the lack of control that I was faced with. The only factor that was weighing in lately was my switch to macos - docear for word cannot be installed in word for mac and I thought the Mendeley word plug-in could be an option. Anyone can point me to a recipe for using bib files with word on macos, preferably not involving a reference export to .xml?

I switched from MD to MRM this week on my Windows 10 machine and regretted. The MRM screen usually becomes empty and white and has to be restarted. Advice: don't switch to MRM.

I switched to Mendeley reference manager(MRM) but i faced many issues. Previous articles done by Mendeley desktop were not recognized by MRM. I went back to Mendeley desktop and everything is good now

Hello, does anyone knows if it is possible to use "update details" on MRM ? Thanks in advance for your help ? Kindly yours,

I've giveup MRM altogether. Luckily just copying my old Mendeley Desktop folder from the old computer to the new worked and I could just keep using Desktop. Farewell, Reference Manager. Never again!

I dread the day they force us to move to MRM. I like MD and it works really well with tagging, which I rely on 100% for managing, searching, exporting bib files and much more. I also use the Groups library as a way to communicate with my teams and the interface for MRM is not as versatile IMO.

As far as I know, MRM cannot remove duplicates, and it is a significant drawback. Most of the time, when I want to add an article to my library, I cannot remember whether it has been added in advance or not!

Thank you for the very helpful insights. I have been trying to find out how to convince myself that the newer MRM is better. I have retained the Desktop version and continue to use it for reasons of ease and usability. Sure the MRM looks nicer but functionality-wise, it doesn't match the desktop version - yet.

Given the number of consistent comments - that Mendeley Reference Manager is nowhere near as useful for academics as Mendeley Desktop for a large number of reasons, do you think @Mendeley / @elsevier is listening? Will they continue to support Mendeley Desktop rather than force people to use a sub-standard product?

I loved Mendeley Desktop and recommended it to everyone! Then my laptop died and when I purchased a new laptop, all that was available was Mendeley Reference Manager. It is awful! You cannot detect and remove duplicates. It is slow. The data it imports from PDFs is horrendous. What Is Elsevier thinking? I'm looking at other options. Any recommendations on alternatives (e.g., zotero)? What are people doing?

Heather A. Stewart just incase I need a new computer.... why cant you use Mendeley Desktop on the new laptop?

Heather A. Stewart Have a look at Zotero. I've used Mendeley Desktop for some years and also had a look at MDM but it was quickly apparent that the product is currently close to useless.

Switched to Zotero and never looked back. Quick, easy to use interface, free to use, intergrate with google drive for storage that syncs across devices (https://tomsaunders.co.nz/zotero-with-google-drive/), or else purchase some storage from Zotero to support development. Collaboration in groups works. Sync across devices (including attachements) works.

Some of my colleagues were frustrated with EndNote (our institutions licensed product) and they also switched to Zotero and are pleased with it.

Cecelia Carroll Mendeley Desktop is no longer available for download, at least that was what I found.

Jesper Fjølner I used EndNote for a few years about a decade ago and wasn't impressed enough to continue using it after I was no longer with an institution that had a license. Some of my colleagues love Zotero so I'm switching over and will see how it works out. It is just a shame that all my annotations will be gone.

Heather A. Stewart You may try this,

https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/88263/available-for-beta-testing-import-mendeley-annotations

take notice that , "... you'll need to be running Mendeley 1.18 for the importer to work, due to database encryption in later versions of Mendeley." - Good Luck!

Heather A. Stewart - Mendeley Desktop is still available, hopefully for a while yet - https://www.mendeley.com/download-mendeley-desktop-legacy/windows

Another snag I have discovered with MRM is that you cannot use it with Word document containing references previously inserted from MDM, this in practice means that if you want to use MRM on an old document you have to replace all the references enough to drive you (me) insane!

You have to start with a black Word Document or one without Mendeley desktop references as the two versions are incompatible!!! Unbelievable!

Plus you cannot rename the pdfs anymore (at least I could not find it), as you could with Desktop. The file tab only allows to Export.

Mendeley reference manager Its horrible software.

Mendeley Desktop is an excellent software whereas Mendeley Reference Manager simply does not work and is useless.

Mendeley desktop was so good and nowadays it is just impossible to use the Mendeley Reference Manager. So disappointed. Simply it doesn't work. I imported my Library to Zotero. Let's check how it works

i also wonder if tou beed to have a subsribption to use the mendeley desktop… who well does is facilitate the writing process?

Looks like Desktop won't be available for download after September 1. I assume this is part of a plan for making it obsolete.

I have submitted feedback to them (again)

• No duplication checking in MRM
• No key words
• TAGS - Cannot easily enter multiple tags any more (one by one, a HUGE issue for me)
• No more local backups available
• Horrible light grey interface and hard to see no options

Submit feedback and complaints. Maybe they will change?

It may be possible to save a download and save an exe.file of MD so that you can reuse i if you switch computers, obviously you will have to maintain rent payment, quite steep if you gave a lot of stored files, like me

I was waiting for new updates for Mendeley Desktop, but unfortunately, it was destroyed entirely and regressed to a primitive application that lacks many features. Mendeley Desktop was a real library manager with citation capability, while MDM is only a simple citation tool >> Migration to another software becomes a must.

Dear Mendeley Support team, please read all the comments.

please enhance the MD rather than transform to MRM

MD has the option to sort by favorites or read/unread documents.

MRM has neither of these, which is why I choose not to use MRM.

Mahmood Wajeeh I haven't tried MRM but doesn't appear to have a good review. If MD is indeed made obsolete what other software can we easily migrate to to keep all our notes, highlights and tags etc ?

All features you mentioned from MD are great. A critical issue for me is keeping all papers on my desktop, the feature to rename files according to the rules we define, and the watching folders. MRM will probably force a signature to use the cloud in the future. It is not thinking about the user's needs. I hope Elsevier listens to the users and keeps supporting MD.

I tried MRM a few months ago and reverted back to MD because I was unable to search the literature through MRM. I really appreciate the convenience of doing that in MD. I have started using Zotero. So far it works pretty well.

I tried MRM recently and although it has a pretty neat look, it doesn't offer many utilities as MD. I cannot:

1) watch a folder add new papers into my library

2) access to the folders where a paper is supposed to be stored

3) set the local settings

I think I will switch to Zotero, MD has a tool to connect with Zotero and import your library a feature that MRM doesn't support . . . sad.

Mendeley Desktop was not good to begin with, but this new program is total trash. Search works only for article titles and not content, there are no settings, forced use of their cloud (I already have a library, why should I duplicate and redownload all my articles again to be able to read them offline?), extra clicks to open the PDF.

I used Qiqqa before, it was overall much better software than MD, but it was more difficult to populate article metadata because it uses Google and they ban you for too many BibTeX searches.

I will try Zotero as recommended here.

Mendeley Desktop is recommended.

FYI. I reached out again to Mendeley via the Chat function to try to find a way to get in touch with a product manager or to be part of any user feedback groups they might have at some point. I once again shared a link to this thread and submitted my points again from above.

Interestingly, the person told me that "Mendeley Desktop is not going to be phased out" just it will not longer be available for download as of Sept 1 as we all know.

I mentioned how tagging (only being able to enter one word at a time) and the removal of keyword field is a big issue for me and she replied these are "under consideration and will be included in a future update although we do not have an exact date yet". Then just to follow the release notes https://www.mendeley.com/release-notes-reference-manager/

Nothing truly new to report and I am not sure anything will actually happen. But I still encourage others to continue to report these pains. The more people who do the better

It really sucks my time to reupload my local files to the MRM

I was co-authoring a paper with a colleague and he uses MRM. I sent him a draft of our paper to work on and he converted all the references I added using MD to MRM. Once this is done, there is no going back. Since then, the paper has been siting on my desktop. I have been unable to proceed. Working on it would mean re-adding each reference using MD. Its exhausting. Why arent they both interoperable? Its essential for a smooth transition.

I might be switching to Zotero as recommended here.

Yes, there should be a very big warning when you open MRM that it is designed to be incompatible with MD, -I cannot imagine why they want to kill off

MD, but seemingly they do.

There's only one thing true: MRM is trash.

Due the discontinuation of MD. I am currently evaluating Zotero, with good results so far. All references and folders in MD can be imported in to Zotero. In Zotero the references are stored together with notes and other relevant information that you consider, and there are interesting tools like tags and timeline. It can be a good alternative for MD. https://www.zotero.org/

Reference Manager is a downgrade to Desktop. They have removed all features that made MD good.

1. You don't have local storage, if you don't have good internet it becomes difficult to work on MRM.

2. You cannot rename the files and share them with your friends easily.

3. You cannot set the default citation style from MRM, you have to go to MS Word to do that.

4. I cannot add articles to "My publications" from MRM.

5. I cannot find files with tags.

This is not an exhaustive list. But it's enough to irritate me.

Is there any advantage of MRM over MD? (I can't see any)

I have read this thread twice to see if there is anything good about Mendeley Reference Manager, and I am happy to see that I am not the only one who doesn't like the decision made by the developers at Mendeley.

I won't be using Mendeley Reference Manager, because apparently, it's a downgrade from Mendeley Desktop.

I don't find merge duplicate files on MRM. Its very useful in MD when you accidentally add more than one on a same article. Anyone find this tool in MRM?

The Mobile version was removed, and now the desktop version getting removed. Not happy. Time to switch I think. The whole philosophy on which Mendeley was founded seems to be getting lost after it was bought over. Zotero / EndNote seems to be the option.

Mendeley Desktop was good for referring, editting merging etc. But the new version Referance Manager is a big frustriation. I switched to Zotero but it has also some negative sides. I installed again Mendeley Desktop Manager and i'm continously sending e-mails to customer service to let them turn back from this mistake.

That is good to hear. Perhaps a petition of interested Mendeley Desktop users could be organized to Elsevier to prevent this retrograde step or make the features of RM completely compatible with those of MD?

I urge everybody to contact Mendeley via social networks like Twitter @MendeleySupport and state what do you think about their product.

I have been using mendeley desktop for over 12 years at this point. And, the reference manager update is interesting but is not seamless. Especially, it plays with word/microsoft. And, it is a big issue to tackle those problems on a work computer.

So, I am finally switching to Zotero.

does anyone know an alternative to mendeley desktop with local storage of my library?