Changes to Mendeley in 2026: How to protect your PDF library

Negotiations between CAUL (Council of Australian University Librarians) and Elsevier are currently paused. As a result,  access to Elsevier products, including ScienceDirect journals and Mendeley services, will change from January 1st 2026. Researchers should be aware that Mendeley will reduce its cloud storage allowance, which may limit the number of PDFs you can store.

From January 2026, Mendeley accounts linked to institutional subscriptions (any account created with a CSU email address) will move from 100GB of cloud storage to the standard free tier of 2GB. This means:

  • New PDF uploads may be blocked
  • PDFs stored only in the cloud may become inaccessible

For researchers who use Mendeley as a repository for annotated PDFs, this poses a risk to long-term access and preservation. We recommend backing up your library and migrating to EndNote, which is fully supported by the University Library.

Protecting your PDFs: Quick steps

Setup an EndNote account:
Download and installation instructions

Export your Mendeley library as a RIS file:
Mendeley: Exporting references information

Import the RIS file into EndNote:
Clarivate: Transferring records from Mendeley

For additional guidance, Mendeley’s Help Guides and Support Centre provide instructions on exporting libraries, managing PDFs, and troubleshooting sync issues.

We are here to help

We understand these changes can be disruptive, if you have questions about EndNote, or migrating your PDFs, please contact us for assistance.


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