Info on complementary .zotero library files

fgr1
To whom it may regard,

what information do the .zotero-ft-cache files contain?

Are the annotation over there as well?
Can all
.zotero-pdf-state
.zotero-reader-state
.zotero-ft-info
be deleted without any issue while Zotero is not running?
  • adamsmith
    Generally I'd strongly discourage deleting (or really: doing) anything in the Zotero data folder. It's intended to be managed by Zotero, not by users.
    The ft files contain indexing for full text (hence ft) search. Disabling them will remove The pdf and reader state files contain the current state of the Zotero reader so it opens the same docs in the same position next time.

    Why do you want to delete those files?
  • fgr1
    I am trying to reorganize my library with attanger.
    https://github.com/MuiseDestiny/zotero-attanger
    attanger is doing most of the re-organization for me

    For the most part it worked pretty well. The advantage of this is the logical structuring (replacing random words with clearly understandable folder names, from stored files to linked files).

    I wanted to then delete unnecessary folder in a post-moving clean-up process.

    I have a local storage+onedrive synce setup, so the change in folder organization is advantageous in a vacuum, but maybe I am missing something. Any comment?
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    As adamsmith says, those files are managed by Zotero, and you shouldn't be touching them. Those folders exist for linked files as well as stored files.
  • sciwonder
    Sorry for reviving an old thread, but I was just wondering whether these files (`.zotero-reader-state`, `.zotero-ft-info`, etc.) are also copied when the Zotero library folder is copied from one volume to another? I'm using Carbon Copy Cloner, rather than just regular copy-and-paste, because this is for a backup. But I wanted to be sure that copying the whole library folder to another destination retains these files in the copy process.

    If it didn't, I assume the effect would just be that, on the destination volume, Zotero would recreate these files when the application is opened the first time? I'd rather have an exact copy (and I'm assuming that CCC has given me that), but it would be nice to know what the ill effects (if any) would be if these particular files weren't copied to the destination volume.
  • adamsmith
    edited 4 hours ago
    That's not a Zotero question, really -- these are regular (hidden) files, and in general, if you copy the whole folder, it'll include all files.

    I would assume CCC includes hidden files on copy, but you'd want to check to make sure and it's conceivable there'd be a setting for that.

    (and it wouldn't be a huge issue if you deleted them -- you'd lose the indexing status, indexing information, and current position of the reader, respectively and they can all be regenerated if need be, but still, they're meant to be included in a full library back-up)
  • sciwonder
    Thanks @adamsmith. It looks like they've copied to the destination. So it seems that it was a full library backup as intended.

    Looking further, I've noticed that CCC has a "Don't preserve extended attributes" option within its backup settings. To my understanding, "extended attributes" mostly applies to Finder in macOS, but I guess there are other applications, including third-party ones like Zotero, to which this might be applicable. Because I haven't got this option selected, I can't be certain what it would do the particular files mentioned above. But it's good to know that, regardless, Zotero would regenerate them if, for some reason, they weren't copied.
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