105 comments

• iaroslav commented  ·  March 25, 2013 9:38 p.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  When we can see full portable version?

• M Rabie commented  ·  January 22, 2013 10:45 a.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  any plans regarding a full portable version?

• Maciej Tomczak commented  ·  January 4, 2013 12:24 a.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  Please enlighten me: fully portable or not, there is presently no way in Mendeley for the user to change the folder where the database files and their backups are kept from the default (e.g. Win7: /users/[currntuser]/AppData/Local/Mendeley Ltd/Mendeley Desktop/) no matter what?

• Elisa Pannini commented  ·  November 24, 2012 2:05 p.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  Brilliant, thanks!

• Brian Brandler commented  ·  September 3, 2012 9:00 a.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  Thanks!

• Robert Knight commented  ·  September 3, 2012 4:24 a.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  Hello Brian,

  To do that, all you need to do is login to Mendeley with the same account details on your lab computer and your home computer.

  The only difference between the 'non admin' installer and the normal one is that the 'non admin' installer installs Mendeley's program files to a location under C:\Users\<Your Name>\AppData and the normal one installs to C:\Program Files\Mendeley Desktop. The "non admin" one also doesn't add an entry to the Start menu at the moment, the normal one does. Both put shortcuts to Mendeley on the desktop.

• taylor commented  ·  August 16, 2012 2:08 p.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  that is really important!!

• Brian Brandler commented  ·  August 6, 2012 12:34 p.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  Can someone describe how the non-admin rights version works?

  I would like to have the same Mendeley library installed on my lab computer + my home computer. Is this possible?

• Luz Jaimes commented  ·  July 31, 2012 2:39 a.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  Can you run this version 1.5.1-win 32 from a USB drive? I think that was the purpose of this feedback. Would be great if you can confirm this, please.

• Robert Knight commented  ·  July 28, 2012 3:51 a.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  Hello Gabriel,

  On Mac and Linux, this isn't needed. The regular "installers" can be unpacked anywhere on your system. If you're on Ubuntu, use the 'generic Linux' version if you need to install on a system without admin rights. Aside from the packaging, it is identical to the 'Ubuntu' version.

• Gabriel commented  ·  July 25, 2012 12:40 p.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  +3 for the Linux version of this portable Mendeley Robert Knight mentions.

• Robert Knight commented  ·  July 18, 2012 4:01 a.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  A version of Mendeley Desktop for Windows which can be installed on shared computers without admin rights is available from http://s3.amazonaws.com/com.mendeley.download/Mendeley-Desktop-1.5.1-win32-NonAdmin.exe

  This is not a full 'portable' version that stores everything on a USB pen, but it may help some users.

• M Rabie commented  ·  May 23, 2012 5:20 a.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  is this really going to work?!! I've been waiting for this for a year now since I started using mendely. the PCs in my hospital library will automatically delete any changes you made on restart. So I have to download everything again every time I use mendeley. if you have any other sensible ideas, please let me know.

• DetlevCM commented  ·  May 21, 2012 6:44 a.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  I just thought I shall point something out for all people here, not sure if it has been mentioned already: If you download Mendeley, you can extract the executable with 7-zip and it runs just like a Portable Application. The One thing it lacks when doing this is proper support for the WordPlugin - or specifically: I could not get it to work doing that, but otherwise it works perfectly fine.

• Sophie Lieberman commented  ·  April 23, 2012 8:12 a.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  All that talk about the "mendeley community" just serves to drive up user numbers. Nobody here really cares about what the community wants. Running mendeley from a USB stick does not square with selling online space.

• jack pendrose commented  ·  March 26, 2012 12:15 a.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  I can make it portable by using any portable app builder. it works fine. It can work offline or online. the pdf files are stored in the usb drive or any directory where the portable app resides. No problems if I move the portable app, its still works. I am enjoying this portable app i made.

• Caroline Sigouin commented  ·  March 11, 2012 12:24 p.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  Mendeley's own cloud storage is indeed not very attractive, and there is still places in the world where internet connexion (or high speed one) is not available!

• Carl Anderson commented  ·  February 15, 2012 6:33 a.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  I'm increasingly forced to wonder if, in some senses, this issue has languished so long without resolution that it in some senses (but only some!) will cease to matter as people move away from toting USB drives around and towards cloud storage. On the other hand, Mendeley's own cloud storage options are fairly unattractive, and the problems for academics who are forced to work through ham-fistedly locked-down computers at their institutions (if not at home!) remains one which, perhaps for the moment, can only be addressed by running an app off a portable USB drive. (In this respect, I am intrigued by the model of the Scrivener application, which at the moment needs to be installed on a computer in the regular way, but can then be copied to a USB drive and run from that USB drive on any other computer of the same OS. That gets around the problem of institutional computers that have been practically bricked by institutional IT divisions.) But I'm starting to see the "permissions" problem as something perhaps more acute than the actual storage problem .... Technology can, in theory, solve storage issues -- whether or not Mendeley desktop gives users the flexibility to take advantage of those solutions in a rational way. But the locked-down computer thing is, unfortunately, human interference -- for which we can seek workarounds, but hardly solutions.

• Midas commented  ·  February 15, 2012 6:13 a.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  I had to abandon lurk mode to say this: the absence of a portable version is a grave error of the Mendeley development team. Nowadays it is a rather essential feature, when computing environments are so diverse and volatile, when interoperability, platform independence and resistance to application lock-in is such a present concern for the majority of users. This feature has been discussed now for over 4 years and many promises have been made that have yet to be fulfilled. I regard this as utter failure to grasp the needs of the Mendeley community. How would one trust this corporation with our hard earned research nuggets, when it turns a deaf ear to such a basic request?

  [ An equivalent statement has been posted to support: http://support.mendeley.com/customer/portal/questions/186515-portable-version?new=186515 ]

• Amir commented  ·  January 30, 2012 9:10 p.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  Everyone use DROPBOX for the Mendeley Bib...this feature is not needed then!!!