Ahh, I see--so if I turn off file syncing, my online Zotero account will stay at full storage capacity, but that won't affect all the other bibliographic information (notes, citations, etc), which will continue to work just fine. Is that right?
Had the same problem and reading everything I still wasn't sure so I'll just say this:
First, don't forget to switch off attachment sync
If what you want is to delete all data taking up space in the could but keep all your local content then yes click the "purge" button, it'll only delete content on the cloud. I heartily suggest the zotero team make that button a bit more friendly. I was afraid I was going to lose all my local stuff and at the lab when we had to choose on a citation manager we couldn't pick zoterro because of this issue (split between zoterro and mendeley)
Those buttons aren't intended to be used generally. As adamsmith mentions above, you don't really need to worry about purging the Zotero server--turning off file sync suffices for nearly all use cases.
You are certainly free to choose whichever program works for your group, but I'm not sure why this would be the deciding factor.
Or to phrase this differently: there are exactly two situations -- really two variants of the same variation -- for which "purge" is meant and useful: 1) If you switch file sync for "My Library" to WebDAV and need to free up space for file syncing in groups you own or 2) If you turn off file sync for "My Library" and need to free up space for file syncing in groups you own.
If you're not in one of those two situations, you shouldn't use Purge. Most people who're interested in Purge do want to use it for something else (wasting time for themselves and money for Zotero). So I don't really think the button should be friendlier, but it would help if it were clearer.
It's worth considering whether moving the purge button somewhere other than the screen that "Update Storage" gets you to would help with that. (But I don't know where it'd go either).
Thanks for all the help! But I couldn't find this discussed: What happens if I used up almost 2 GB of my storage, switched to Dropbox storage of the attachments, and my 2GB data plan runs out? It was previously written that it automatically switches to the default 300 MB, but how does it decide which of the attachments to delete?
That behavior is undefined — i.e., it's not possible to say which files would be deleted. But to be clear, that wouldn't have any effect on your files locally, only which files are accessible from the website. And you won't be able to upload any new files to any libraries you own until you delete attachments.
I think many people don't really know what we want. The creator of this posting wants to free up the Zotero online space by removing attachments online (he can link files locally for the local usage), so that he will have space for syncing citations.
you can do an advanced search for "Attachment FIle Type --is --- PDF" Create a saved search, in that saved search select all (ctrl+a or cmd+a on a mac) and the right-click --> move items to trash. Note that while the saved search will also contain the items to which the PDFs are attached, select all will only select the attachments.
I tried this on Zotero 5.0.96.2 on Windows and it only identified 2 PDFs out of dozens. (Most files are in subcollections, and I checked "Search subcollections.") When I Select "Include parent and child items of matching items", all of the matches actually show up, but I can't Ctrl-A and then delete PDFs only.
@katrielf: If you specify only [Attachment File Type] [is] [PDF] and no other conditions, it should absolutely select all PDF attachments in the library. If you add other conditions, that might not happen, depending on the other conditions. "Search subcollections" is irrelevant, and "Include parent and child items of matching items" shouldn't be selected.
@dstillman, I believe you that it "should absolutely" happen; I'm just reporting that it does not actually happen with "Search subcollections" selected.
ADDENDUM: I'm sorry; this was inappropriately sarcastic. Thanks so much for the quick response, and this is not a big problem at all.
I'm saying that you're likely doing something different, or there's something wrong with your library. This is a pretty basic function. Again, "Search subcollections" is irrelevant here — you'll get the exact same results with or without.
Can you take screenshots of the search window and the results you're getting, as well as something that's not matching, upload them somewhere (Dropbox or Google Drive), and provide a link here? You can email the screenshots to support@zotero.org if you'd prefer not to post them publicly.
Right, as I said, "If you specify only [Attachment File Type] [is] [PDF] and no other conditions". You're specifying another condition, so it won't work.
You can search for PDFs in a given collection by creating one saved search for [Collection] [is] [collection] and "Include parent and child items of matching items" and then a second search for [Collection] [is] [first saved search] and [Attachment File Type] [is] [PDF].
I realize that yes, there was another condition selected: I am trying to do all this within my "Old" collection and thus preserve attachments in other collections.
That's the only option you need, yes. The Retrieve metadata option determines what happens when a PDF is added. It's never triggered when you don't add PDFs.
Upgrade Storage
Dan
First, don't forget to switch off attachment sync
If what you want is to delete all data taking up space in the could but keep all your local content then yes click the "purge" button, it'll only delete content on the cloud. I heartily suggest the zotero team make that button a bit more friendly. I was afraid I was going to lose all my local stuff and at the lab when we had to choose on a citation manager we couldn't pick zoterro because of this issue (split between zoterro and mendeley)
regards,
Dirk
You are certainly free to choose whichever program works for your group, but I'm not sure why this would be the deciding factor.
1) If you switch file sync for "My Library" to WebDAV and need to free up space for file syncing in groups you own or
2) If you turn off file sync for "My Library" and need to free up space for file syncing in groups you own.
If you're not in one of those two situations, you shouldn't use Purge. Most people who're interested in Purge do want to use it for something else (wasting time for themselves and money for Zotero). So I don't really think the button should be friendlier, but it would help if it were clearer.
It's worth considering whether moving the purge button somewhere other than the screen that "Update Storage" gets you to would help with that. (But I don't know where it'd go either).
But I couldn't find this discussed: What happens if I used up almost 2 GB of my storage, switched to Dropbox storage of the attachments, and my 2GB data plan runs out?
It was previously written that it automatically switches to the default 300 MB, but how does it decide which of the attachments to delete?
ADDENDUM: I'm sorry; this was inappropriately sarcastic. Thanks so much for the quick response, and this is not a big problem at all.
Can you take screenshots of the search window and the results you're getting, as well as something that's not matching, upload them somewhere (Dropbox or Google Drive), and provide a link here? You can email the screenshots to support@zotero.org if you'd prefer not to post them publicly.
You can search for PDFs in a given collection by creating one saved search for [Collection] [is] [collection] and "Include parent and child items of matching items" and then a second search for [Collection] [is] [first saved search] and [Attachment File Type] [is] [PDF].
In the Settings, is it enough switching off the second option (below) to avoid PDFs in future?
Settings>General>File Handling>Automatically attach associated PDFs..
I'm asking, because the third option "retrieves metadata from PDFs", so the download is still initiated but not stored then?