Very large Zotero database file (>200 MB)

jasonlustig · May 17, 2019

I have a fairly large Zotero database (I'm not 100% sure how many citations but it is at least a few thousand), and I realized when doing a backup of my computer that the sqlite database file is quite large - over 200 MB. Why is the sqlite file so large? Is there anything I should worry about with a large DB file? I expect that over the next few years my Zotero db will continue to grow as I collect more citations and work on new projects. All of my PDF files are stored externally (linked to another location on my HD), so they are all backed up separately, but I see a database this large when it is mostly text-based information and it worries me that there is something wrong.

dstillman · May 17, 2019

Nothing wrong — it's just the full-text index of your attachments. We may be able to reduce the size and/or split the full-text index out into a different database in a future version, but this is normal. There are people with databases > 1 GB.

(The one exception to the above would be if you've added images to notes, which isn't recommended and will break syncing.)

wakiv · May 17, 2019

I have a 100MB database with 2000 items, no issues.
One thing to watch out for is that the database file is locked and some backup programs can't copy it while Zotero is running.
There is a Zotero backup database that gets copied, but the main database file can only be backed up with a shadow copy or with Zotero shut down.