Storage - what happens to files?

josephwalston
Hi all, I currently do not pay for extra Zotero storage but am interested in it. My concern is that if I ever decide to stop paying for it, I would lose all the files. Currently, when I download files, I upload them into my Zotero and then delete the file off of my computer. If I continue to do that, buy extra storage, and then stop paying for extra storage in some future year, would I lose all of those files since they are not saved directly onto my computer? In other words, once you start paying for storage, don't you basically have to continually pay for it? Thank you for any input and advice.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited yesterday at 8:09pm
    You can always just download the files to your local Zotero. (Make sure you're set to download files "at sync time" and do a Reset File Sync History from the Reset section.) Discontinuing a storage subscription never affects your local library.
  • josephwalston
    Would doing so mean that all the files are then stored on your computer, rather than in the Zotero storage? So that, if you stopped paying for extra storage, you would still have them downloaded on your computer. I am hoping for clarity on if I upload a file to my Zotero and then delete the file from my computer (but it stays in my Zotero) -- are those the kind of files I could lose if I pay for extra storage and eventually stop? Thanks!
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    I explained this above. You can always redownload all files to your local Zotero.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    Downloading files doesn't remove them from your Zotero Storage online, but the point is that you'd have local copies, so if you stopped paying for Zotero Storage and files were purged from our servers, you wouldn't lose them from your Zotero library.
  • josephwalston
    Hi, yes thanks for getting back to me and explaining it further; I did not understand it earlier. Currently, my Zotero cloud storage is full.... If I have files that I upload (drag and drop) into the app and then delete that file off my computer, where is that stored currently? Does that make sense? I obviously cannot access it on a Zotero logged into another device but is it stored under the app, technically? Thanks again for your fast response and support!
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    Oh, by "delete off [your] computer" you mean delete the original from wherever you dragged it? In that case it's just in your Zotero data directory and none of the above is even relevant. Zotero stores everything locally, so unless you actually do right-click → Show File and delete the file within the data directory, everything is still on your computer (and nowhere else, if you're at your online storage quota).

    (For future reference, "upload" implies uploading over the network to our servers, which Zotero does during syncing, not just dragging something to the local app.)

    A future version of Zotero will make it possible to configure how long to keep local copies of files that have been uploaded to our servers in order to minimize local disk space usage, but for now, unless you're actually going into the data directory and deleting files, you have everything locally and will continue to have everything locally, regardless of your quota.
  • josephwalston
    Yes, okay, thanks for the clarity! This makes sense. I delete the files locally off my laptop since I assume that by also adding it into my local Zotero (the data directory, I suppose), I am basically having take up storage twice on my local disk space.... once as the "raw file" and another in my local Zotero app....maybe that is incorrect, haha!
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited today at 4:22am
    No, that's exactly correct and what you should do.
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