deleting unfiled items?

hi! in my unfiled section there's a lot of stuff i'd like to get rid of, but i can't seem to use the backspace key or the top menu to delete it. is this a bug?
  • edited September 18, 2021
    In Unfiled Items you can use Shift-Delete / Cmd-Delete, or you can right-click and Move Item(s) to Trash.

    We could reconsider this, but it's the same behavior as in a saved search. Basically, in the library root, an unmodified delete key moves to trash, but elsewhere, you have to use Shift/Cmd. In a collection that's because an unmodified delete removes the item from the collection, but nothing is bound to an unmodified delete in saved searches or Unfiled Items, so it arguably makes a bit less sense there. But it does make it harder to accidentally delete something.
  • Fascinating. I ended up resolving it by moving all my unfiled items to a collection called “delete” and then doing the right click - delete collection and all items.

    Since you sound open to feedback , For me, it would be better to just have backspace mean delete, since things go to a trash folder anyway and I could restore if I needed. Or, at least allow the top menu to delete, since that’s not a keystroke.

    Thanks for getting back to me.
  • edited September 18, 2021
    I ended up resolving it by moving all my unfiled items to a collection called “delete” and then doing the right click - delete collection and all items.
    But you realize right-clicking on the items themselves also works in Unfiled Items, yes?

    Not sure what you mean by "top menu". There's no option in the main menus to move items to the trash anywhere, so nothing specific about Unfiled Items there.
  • I just realized that. I learned the right click action after I posted this, while I was reading the support pages.

    "Top menu" - on a mac, the top bar with the apple logo. Trying to post a screenshot but can't.
    In zotero, the top menu looks like "Apple logo | Zotero | File | Edit | View etc.

    "Delete" is under Edit in the top menu, but it is greyed out in unfiled.
  • No, that's a misunderstanding — that "Delete" is for selected text (a system-wide convention ) and doesn't have anything to do with Zotero items. We could consider changing that to "Delete Item" when items have focus (particularly since we do add Copy Citation/Bibliography options for items in that section) but that doesn't happen now in the library root either.
  • I just had exactly the same "problem", including the "delete" menu confusion. I think both are quite confusing issues: pressing "delete key" and nothing occurs, and "delete" menu option grayed out when you have items selected.
    I suggest allowing unmodified "delete key" under "Unfiled Items" (it's already different from other saved searchs in the key behavior and in the fact that it's automatically included), and you should indeed either allow "delete item" for the menu "delete" or change it's name to "delete text".
    All in all, thanks for your quick and detailed answers.
  • edited September 21, 2021
    I suggest allowing unmodified "delete key" under "Unfiled Items" (it's already different from other saved searchs in the key behavior and in the fact that it's automatically included)
    I'm not sure what you mean by this. What "key behavior" is different from saved searches? I explained above that this is the key behavior in both saved searches and Unfiled Items (and everything other than the library root and collections). Doesn't mean we shouldn't change it, but I want to make sure you're understanding the current behavior.
  • Yes, I noticed my mistake after posting my comment (I was thinking about collections), but couldn't edit it at the moment because it was being processed :(
    It's different from collections, but the same from saved searches.
    Good to confirm you pay attention to what we say ;)
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