need to back up styles and translators?

In the documentation on backup from the data folder, it says...

"First, reinstall Zotero from zotero.org if necessary. After restarting Firefox, open the Advanced pane of the Zotero preferences and click “Show data directory”. This should reveal a folder containing zotero.sqlite and possibly a 'storage' folder. Close Firefox and move zotero.sqlite and 'storage' from this folder into a temporary folder on your desktop. Next, copy zotero.sqlite and 'storage' from your backup into the active data directory. When you reopen Firefox, your Zotero library should be there waiting for you."

There is nothing at all in the documentation about the "styles" and "translators" folders which are also in the data directory. Can I infer from this that I do not need to back up these two folders?

Presumably, whenever there are new styles and new translators, Zotero will automatically update itself, and that's going to happen quite often (with translators especially), so I would think that backing up these folders would actually be counterproductive: if I need to restore a backup and I restore these two folders along with my database, I will have out-of-date styles and translators.

Correct? Or what's the skinny here?
  • If they don't exist, those directories will be recreated on the next Firefox/Zotero startup. If they do exist, any outdated styles and translators will be automatically updated.
  • you don't need to update styles and translators. Styles actually aren't automatically updated for the most parts (translators are), but you can always get the most recent ones from Zotero. If you have a bunch of non-default styles installed, you'd have to re-install those, but that is, as you know, a matter of minutes if not seconds.

    The reason there is nothing in the documentation is that these folders are tiny in size and you might as well back-up the entire directory, which seems easier (both to do and to tell people to do). And there is a button in the preferences to update your translators and styles, so using a back-up isn't counterproductive either.
  • OK, thanks for the info. That's what I wanted to know.
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