Full text indexing - ePub

sciwonder · 2026-06-07T06:29:09+00:00

A small question about full text indexing. In the Zotero documentation, it states: "Note: At this time, only PDF full text content (and plain text files) can be indexed by Zotero. Other document types (e.g., .docx, .odt, .epub) cannot be indexed by Zotero." However, I've noticed that some `.epub` files in my library are listed as partially indexed. Looking at the changelog for recent versions, I couldn't find any information about `.epub` files now being indexable (although, admittedly, I didn't look too closely). Was this a new feature added recently or some time ago? Or is the documentation still up-to-date (meaning that `.epub` can't be indexed) and my Zotero is just behaving strangely? A minor issue in the grand scheme of things, but would appreciate any clarification.

sciwonder · 2026-06-07T06:48:20+00:00

Also, I assume that clearing the index (in Advanced Settings) has no effect on the actual stored files? I have no need (currently) for full text search, so that index is growing (as further attachment files are added) but getting unused for its intended purpose (facilitating full text search of attachment content).

aborel · 2026-06-07T07:53:23+00:00

I might be wrong, but looking at the changelogs and blog posts EPUB support was really introduced into Zotero with version 7 in 2024. I don't know if it included fulltext searching from day 1, but you get the idea.

The content of https://www.zotero.org/support/preferences/search was last modified on 2020-03-26 so I'm confident that it should be updated (a process that has fortunately become much easier recently).