a File Sync option allowing remove local copy of attachments while keeping remote copy

onedayonenoodle

I noticed that you can safely remove local copy of your music files without deleting the copy in iCloud in Apple's iTunes. Icons for sync status will change and tell you that the file you removed is now only exist in iCloud.

I suggest that Zotero can have similar functionality that allows users to safely remove local copy of PDF files without deleting copies in Zotero server. In fact, it is half available now. You can find attachment files that are only stored in Zotero server by icons, and the download them by clicking. It is just that at the moment there is no way to do this in the opposite way; If you delete the local files then that action will be synced with your library in the Zotero server.


Use Case

I am using a lap top. Because I use a lot of experimental data, the hard drive often gets full. With this new function, I can maintain the integrity of my Zotero library while sparing the disk space. This is particularly the case for someone who are paying for large Zotero library syncing.

dstillman

You can find attachment files that are only stored in Zotero server by icons, and the download them by clicking. It is just that at the moment there is no way to do this in the opposite way

There is, actually — you can do Show File and delete the file locally, or if you're sure everything has been uploaded in all your libraries you can even delete the contents of the 'storage' subdirectory of your Zotero data directory.

But, yes, this isn't ideal, obviously, and we plan to allow better ways to manage cached files for on-demand-download mode from within Zotero in a future version.

onedayonenoodle

Thanks for positive consideration. How do I know deletion won't be reflected to remote files? Usually, if I delete something, it will be deleted. Maybe I'm missing something?

dstillman

Zotero syncs item deletions that you make within Zotero itself. It doesn't sync file deletions you make outside of Zotero.

onedayonenoodle

Oh, I'm probably getting it. The "Show file" context menu will take you to the folder in Finder or Explorer. You're saying it is safe to remove attachment files stored in that folder manually, aren't you? Good to know.

But, yes, it is not sophisticated and when you want to handle hundreds of files at once you'll have a nightmare.