What exactly does "Full-text cache" > "Clear Index" do?

nick.byrd · July 28, 2016

I've got 8800+ Zotero entries and I want to get rid of all PDF attachments, snapshots, links, etc. and keep only the bibliographic info. (I want to be able to make bibliographies from the entries and that's it really.)

So it sounds like "Full-text cache" > "Clear Index" is what I want to do.

But the thought of deleting more than I intend to delete is scary, so I want to make sure I understand what this does before I do it. (The database is backed up, but still.)

Help? (Thanks in advance!)

dstillman · July 28, 2016

No, you don't want to use that — that's just referring to the full-text index.

If you want to delete all attachments, you can create an advanced search for Item Type is Attachment, save the search, press Cmd-A/Ctrl-A in the saved search to select the matching items (i.e., all the attachments, no parent items), and then press Delete/Backspace. Then empty your trash.

dstillman · July 28, 2016

(In 4.0, if you have a huge amount of items, you might need to empty the trash in batches — selecting items in the trash and deleting them permanently — to avoid a large freeze.)

nick.byrd · July 29, 2016

Thanks Dan! Glad I asked.

I've set up the folders and deleted stuff. I did it in batches — first PDF attachments, then snapshots, then pubmed entries, etc. Now 8800+ entries takes up just a few megabytes!

I wish you well!