So, to make sure I understand, Zotero's native extract annotation feature does not yet have feature parity with Zotfile's extract annotation feature (in this case, it does not yet allow custom formatting). Yet you deprecated Zotfile's functionality at this time rather than waiting until it did have full feature parity. Based on comments in other threads, it seems that you did this to avoid user confusion, even though the Zotfile functionality was working fine from a technical perspective.

This decision has not only disrupted my workflow, but actually will create a huge amount of pointless busy-work for me because I will now have to manually edit every note I move from Zotero into my 3rd party program.

Question 1: is there any chance that you would consider adding back the option to use Zotfile's extract annotations feature until the native extract annotation feature actually has full feature parity? Your concern about user confusion is best addressed with additional documentation, not by removing working functionality that users rely on. I can help write the documentation if needed. I really hope that you are open to reconsidering this deprecation and that pride or inability to admit possible errors in judgment do not prevent you from even considering this option. We all make mistakes and in this case I am sure you didn't realize that this deprecation might be a very big deal for some users.

Question 2: if you will not consider reactiving the Zotfile functionality, then how can I use a previous version of Zotero that allows that Zotfile functionality? I am using the Zotero beta and have been for many months, and my database is upgraded. Will installing the last stable version of Zotero work with my current database?

Question 3: if you will not add back the option to use Zotfile, and I cannot use my upgraded database with an older version that does work with Zotfile, then I have been burdened with (honestly) hours of addition work based on this change, which was not mentioned in the changelog. Did you consider warning users about this lost functionality before having them upgrade? Or did you just assume that it was not a big deal? Or did you ask users about it on the forums and I just didn't see that thread?

Question 4: Will you offer any timetable for adding customization of annotations in notes and exported Markdown? I assume based on previous threads on the forum that the Zotero devs will not offer any timeline for adding the formatting options that users previously relied on and which worked well with no technical problems, and I am also assuming (since you removed this functionality) that it is not a feature that is a personal priority for the devs, so adding these options back might take weeks, months, or years. Let me know if I am wrong about this.

I'd really appreciate answers to all four questions.

> > There's nothing stopping you from continuing to use Zotero 5, where ZotFile still works exactly the same as before. If your data is all online, you can downgrade by closing Zotero, reinstalling Zotero 5, moving zotero.sqlite from your Zotero data directory to a backup folder, and syncing Zotero 5 to pull down data from your online library.

Given that I have over 50GB of files both locally and in Zotero online storage, is there a way to do this without re-downloading all of those files, while retaining database links to those documents?

And, will doing this break citation links in my existing writings that are linked to my Zotero database?

Thanks. Can you explain why you said my tone was inappropriate? I didn't attribute bad motive to anyone. Is the idea that since no one forced me to use the beta, I shouldn't question any decisions made about the beta development, or request any changes to beta functionality, or want to be warned about removal of features that have existed unchanged for years? I took care to word my post politely and I honestly don't see why you were offended.

What on earth are you talking about? I questioned one specific decision you made about Zotfile, and you interpreted that as an accusation that you don't care about Zotfile at all or users in general? I guess that's why you started talking about all of the hard work you have done to support Zotfile, which is totally irrelevant to the specific issue I was asking about. And I suppose that you thought I was somehow questioning your decisionmaking or motivations in general, which would be inappropriate, if it were true, but I did nothing of the sort.

I suggested that maybe you didn't fully realize the impact of this particular decision on others and should reconsider it, and you got offended. Does the fact that you have done work to maintain Zotfile in the past somehow mean that every plugin decision you make is self-evidently correct and that questioning it is "not appropriate"?

You also never actually said whether you realized the impact of this decision or not. Did you not consider that this could have large effects on users, or did you realize that and not care enough to let people know? Instead of wagging your finger at me for daring to ask this question, how about responding to a user like me who has been negatively impacted by saying something like, "We didn't think that removal of custom formatting would be an issue for most users, and sorry that removing it is causing you problems. We had good reasons for doing it, but we probably should have included a warning about this in the changelog."

We've added note templates for annotations.