How to recover a corrupted EndNote library

If your EndNote library is corrupted, do not worry, you are not alone.
If you try to use the Tool>Recover Library... option and still EndNote says that 0 references are recovered, do not worry. According to our experience, it simply do not work.

So how to recover a corrupted EndNote library?

Simply follow these steps.

1. Open the directory where the EndNote library is located. e.g. H:\Library\my_precious.enl
2. In the same directory you will see the Data directory. e.g. H:\Library\my_precious.Data
   This is where all the data (e.g. PDF files) are stored.
3. Simply rename the *.Data directory to some other name. Or copy it to another location as a backup.
4. Now double click and open the EndNode library, my_precious.enl
5. You'll see that your corrupted library is opened with all the references*.
6. Also you will see that there is new directory created by EndNote with the same name my_precious.Data
7. Close the library
8. Go to the location where you backup the original data directory at Step 3.
9. Copy the PDF directory you will find inside to the newly created data directory
10. Try to open the library again.
11. Usually this should work. But in case if you fail, repeat the steps from 3 with the following difference.
    This time before you copy the PDF directory from the orginal (backup) data directory, remove the latest entry.

The above method is given only as help and the author claim NO responsibility to any failure or damage caused by this method. It is always a best practice to regularly backup your library to avoid trouble.

*You might lose the groups that you have created but I couldn't find a better way to preserve the groups (meta-data) too. If you know please comment below.

EDIT: There are a number of comments suggesting how to preserve the groups. Thanks for taking time to share those tips.