November 1, 2020 marked the 2 year anniversary of the roll out of Papers, the successor to both the legacy Papers (released 2014) and Papers 3 (released 2013) desktop applications. Just as was done with Papers v1 and Papers v2, we have ended support for Papers v3 on December 31, 2020, and we no longer offer it in any capacity - migrations included. Support for the legacy Papers desktop ended August 31, 2020.
End-of-life does not mean that the application will no longer function: you may continue to run and reinstall both apps, but please note that there are no additional resources devoted to resolving any bugs or compatibility issues arising from future MacOS or Windows operating system releases. There have not been any further improvements or fixes made to Papers 3 since December 31, 2020.
Over the years we have offered migration tools to assist users in moving their libraries from Papers 3 to our latest Papers application and Papers 3 no longer runs on the latest versions of MacOS - with the last compatible version being MacOS 10.15 Catalina. Anything newer than MacOS 10.15 will not work with Papers 3. In addition, our Papers 3 to Papers migration tool also does not work on these newer operating systems and, like Papers 3, will no longer be updated.
Though you will not be able to use a migration tool to bring your library over from Papers 3, you still have access to your files.
By default, your Papers 3 library will be stored in Documents on your computer.
Inside "Papers Library", you'll find all of your PDFs grouped into sections:
Your PDFs will be stored in those folders. You can drag and drop those folders into Papers for import, or elsewhere if you prefer.
In addition, while you do not need Papers 3 to launch in order to get the data above, if Papers 3 does launch on your computer, you can also export your Papers 3 library as a .bib or .ris file for import elsewhere:
If you would like to keep using Papers 3, please keep in mind that the latest compatible MacOS version it ran on was MacOS Catalina (10.15), but it may run into compatibility issues or bugs and it won't be possible to troubleshoot these issues as we no longer offer Papers 3 support of any kind.
Additionally, if you have previously downloaded Papers 3 and would like to reinstall it, you can download the installer again here:
https://update.readcube.com/papers3/legacy_papers_3425_600.dmg