Database Integrity

loorung

Hello,

I'm just spring cleaning my computer and tightening up my backup plan. In my Zotero folder on my HD I have the following files/folders:

locate
pdfinfo-MacIntel
pdfinfo-MacIntel.version
pdftotext-MacIntel
pdftotext-MacIntel.version
pipes
storage
styles
translators
zotero.sqlite
zotero.sqlite-journal
zotero.sqlite.1.bak
zotero.sqlite.73.bak
zotero.sqlite.bak

I was wondering if all these sqlite's necessary, or if some are duplicates?

Also, I'll be backing up to either Crashplan / Backblaze / or SpiderOak. Given (what seems to me) the complexity of the Zotero database and the deep folder hierarchy, will the data be stored / restored correctly, or is there a possibility of corruption?

Thanks

ajlyon

Not all of those are necessary -- you could probably delete zotero.sqlite.1.bak and zotero.sqlite.73.bak -- they are backups made during Zotero updates some time ago. You should keep zotero.sqlite.bak, which is the most recent automatic backup. The file zotero.sqlite is the current database, and the journal is a support file that you should keep (it should be small).

loorung

Thanks, I had a feeling that was the case. Unless anyone chirps in and warns otherwise, I'll delete them.

ajlyon

For 100% clarity, you can delete zotero.sqlite.1.bak and zotero.sqlite.73.bak, but not the others. (I'm a little uncomfortable with an unspecified "them"!)

loorung

Don't worry that's what I just did! Thanks for the concern. Zotero still working perfectly.

dstillman

Note that zotero.sqlite.1.bak is just the previous automatic backup before zotero.sqlite.bak, so it'll be recreated. You can control the number of automatic backups by changing extensions.zotero.backup.numBackups in about:config—it defaults to 2.