Global delete of PDF files from Library?

Stuart Lee
I had previously been downloading free PDFs to my library but now I have a computer with a smaller hard drive and I am trying to free up storage space. Rather than deleting PDFs one by one, is there a way to do this globally? I already have shut off the option to automatically download PDFs.
  • adamsmith
    Advanced Search

    Attachment File Type -- is -- PDF

    Create a saved search

    In the saved search, select all (ctrl+a or cmd+a on a Mac), right-click and move to trash.

    This will also remove the PDFs on the Zotero servers, though, so be sure that you want to do that.
  • Stuart Lee
    Thank you. This worked great!
  • bwiernik
    Another option would be to change your sync settings for attachments to As Needed, then open your Zotero data folder and search for *.pdf and delete them there. This will keep them in the Zotero server but delete them from your local computer.
  • ritagracio
    Hi! I'm trying to understand how to delete the pdfs without deleting the metadata associated with the pdfs. I've just followed all these steps, and after "move to trash", it seems, at first sight, that the metadata has also disappeared (because the saved search folder is now empty). How can I check if it did not disappear? (Fortunately, the files I move to trash remain there for 1 month, so I can still recover the information, I think). Thank you!
  • dstillman
    @ritagracio: Can you explain exactly what you're trying to do? If you're trying to actually delete attachment items in Zotero, you can follow the steps from adamsmith above. The parent items will still exist in the library root, and if you look in the trash you'll see the parent items are shown in gray (meaning they're not actually in the trash, just context rows).
  • ritagracio
    Thank you so much for your prompt reply! It's a pity I can't post a print screen. I've done all that bwiernik wrote:

    Attachment File Type -- is -- PDF
    (when we choose this option you can "tick" boxes such as "search subcollections", but I left them all un-ticked)
    Create a saved search, and in that folder I did ctrl+a--> right-click and move to trash.

    And then, the saved search folder went all blank, empty, and then I checked the folder "Trash", and I realized that what I've previously seen in "saved search" folder , was now there.

    @dstillman, as you explained: in Trash the items are in grey, so hopefully it means they are not really deleted, only the pdfs were deleted.

    I was asking if there is a way to double-check if I did not delete the metadata and only the pdf files attached... But from your answer, I guess one has to trust the process of doing it, and there is not a real way to check it? Thank you!
  • dstillman
    Everything you're seeing is normal. The search is for the attachments, not the parent items, so when you move them to the trash, the search no longer matches anything. And I explained exactly how to check — you just look in your library and confirm that the items are still there, or look in the trash and see that only the deleted child items are in black. You don't have to "trust" anything.
  • ritagracio
    Thank you very much @dstillman. I was able to follow your first and now second suggestion on how to check if only the pdfs were deleted, and not the metadata, and it worked. Thank you so much for your prompt reply, and for all your help!
  • ale.suman
    This is EXACTLY what I was looking for!
    Thank you very much for this tip!
  • tompkins.adrian
    On my mac I can make the advanced search to find all PDFs, but cmd-A doesn't work to select them all, and even if select all by clicking on the first and last using shift, right clicking doesn't bring up any menu to be able to "move to trash"
  • dstillman
    @tompkins.adrian: You skipped the part where you create a saved search.
  • Yagamifyed
    This was exactly what I needed, and it worked flawlessly. Thank you very much, @adamsmith!
  • rose_rickford
    I have followed these steps exactly and it has deleted all the literature in my Zotero that had a PDF associated with it. As in all the metadata. Can I get this back? My library is now empty, which is a bit of a disaster.
  • dstillman
    @rose_rickford: That definitely wouldn't happen if you followed the given steps exactly, but in any case, you can just restore the items from the trash.
  • Varda_91
    I've just followed @adamsmith 's instructions and deleted all my PDFs using the saved search, in an attempt to free up space (I'm at 297mb of 300). However the 'zotero storage' tab on my zotero account is still showing at 297mb and I still have the yellow-triangle warning symbol next to the sync button on the zotero window saying "You have reached your Zotero File Storage quota".

    ^ Is this because (as ritagracio stated above) your trash items remain on the server for 1 month? so my PFDs might still be counting towards my data storage limit?

    To confirm I've still got all the metadata (i.e. references) in my library and am confident I have only moved the PDF attachments to trash.

    Also how do I prevent PDFs being automatically imported when I use the Zotero web plugin to download a citation? I use onedrive to save PDFs instead so only need Zotero for cite-while-you-write.

    Finally am I correct in understanding that there is no limit on how many references you can import, only on the size (MB/GB) of attachments?

    Thanks in advance!
  • dstillman
    @Varda_91: It looks like you've figured this out, but you have to empty the trash after deleting the attachment items.
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