Batch delete notes

shermanwilcox
I've imported an ages-old database of references that has been imported/exported through several other reference managers (don't ask). As a result it contains an excessive amount of useless notes, such as the following:

----
#@0 papers2://publication/uuid/221A9504-0BD2-4D36-93A0-96EE54588CE9 (0) (0) (0) English July(0) English July
----

(Yes, I used Papers once.)

It's easy enough to locate all the references that contain these notes. Is there any way to batch delete these notes?
  • adamsmith
    I think this should work:
    1. Put all the references in a collection "Cleanup"
    2. Do an advanced search
    - item Type is Note
    - Collection is Cleanup

    Create a saved search from the results

    If you go into the saved search, everything but the notes should be greyed out. You can then do select all (ctrl+a/cmd+a) and used shift+delete to delete the notes.
  • dstillman
    edited June 8, 2017
    Even easier, unless I'm misunderstanding: go to My Library, paste "papers2://" (or whatever) into the quick search bar in All Fields & Tags mode, Cmd-A/Ctrl-A to Select All (which will highlight only the matches, not the gray context rows), press Delete.
  • shermanwilcox
    edited June 8, 2017
    In fact, this is pretty much what I did. Also with some old, useless Endnote notes. Very useful!

    Thanks to all for the great and fast suggestions!
  • mql1985
    edited April 9, 2018
    Hi, I did what adamsmith suggested, I have to tick "Include parent and child items" to get the notes, but then I can't do select all to delete the notes because it will select the parent items as well so it will delete the whole reference entry. I am using Mac version. Any idea how to delete only the notes in all references? Thanks!
  • adamsmith
    I have to tick "Include parent and child items" to get the notes
    I'm seeing that too and that looks like a bug to me. Specifically, child notes are _never_ found without that option, including e.g. with
    Note -- contains -- %

    cc @dstillman

    (If there is s specific string common to the notes, dstillman's advice from June last year still works, in the meantime)

  • bwiernik
    You should not have to check "Include parent and child items". Doing so will return both the items and the notes, as you've noticed.

    Simply using:
    - item Type is Note
    - Collection is Cleanup

    should return all of the notes that are in the Cleanup collection.
  • adamsmith
    @bwiernik -- does this work for you? I agree it should, but it doesn't for me (see above)
  • bwiernik
    You're right. My similar setup worked in the past but isn't working now.
  • jose.knuesli
    I had the same problem with "Include parent and child items" when trying to batch delete notes. My solution was to save the first search (item Type is Note AND
    Collection is Cleanup; the matching items include the parent items) and then do a new search with: item Type is Note AND Collection is [Saved Search]. For some reason it now only matches the notes. I save that new search again and can proceed with Ctrl+A, Shift+Del.
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