Migrate files to new folder?

[BlankSlate56]

When I first started paperless, I had a different folder structure than I want to have now. I have 2000 files currently loaded into paperless. How can I move those files to a new location without breaking their database link and keep the paperless tags, names, etc? Note that I know how to change the target folder, I just don't know how to migrate my legacy files.

[mpfl]

Caveat: I use Docker.

I just successfully moved ~1000 files to a new NAS using rsync and updated the mount. Paperless didn't bat an eyelid.

The media directory is just a bunch of files. As long as you preserve the structure and file naming conventions, the links to the metadata in the database should be maintained.

[mpfl]

I'm not sure that moving originals without moving the other parts of media is a good idea. Moving all of /NAS/docker/paperless/media to /NAS/Records should be possible (unless Synology imposes restrictions for docker bind mounts). My NAS is an Ubuntu Linux server.

rsync is a command line tool that is useful for copying files in a rigorous fashion. I especially like using it when copying/moving files from server to server (which is what I did in this case).

My process would be:

1. Stop the paperless container
2. Copy the contents of media to the new location by whatever means Synology lets you
3. Update the container definition so that the media mount points to /NAS/Records rather than /NAS/docker/paperless/media. Keep a copy of the old container definition.
4. Start the container to see if all your files are still there. If they are, you can consider deleting your files from the original location.

[BlankSlate56]

So you're saying that all I really have to do is copy the files over, point paperless to the new location, and restart paperless? I was hoping that's all I'd need to do but wanted to make sure.

I honestly don't really understand the point of the archive folder. To me its just creating duplicate copies that I don't need. As for the thumbnails, as long as paperless knows where those are stored, they shouldn't have to be folder-adjacent to the original folder either?

[mpfl]

That's all I just did, albeit moving the files between servers.

When paperless imports a document, it processes the PDF (performs OCR, for example). Since it is modifying the file, it keeps the original file as well (counterintuitively in the archive directory). Paperless has had issues with at least one PDF I've imported, so I'm glad it keeps the originals.

Having a look at the same document in both archive and originals, it looks like the file in originals is around 15% larger than its counterpart in archive.

mpfl@mace:/redundant/records/documents$ ls originals/0000001.pdf archive/0000001.pdf -al
-rw-rw---- 1 records records 110693 Feb 10 05:19 archive/0000001.pdf
-rw-rw---- 1 records records 126812 Feb 10 05:19 originals/0000001.pdf

I guess you could keep the originals directory elsewhere if you bind mount media and media/originals separately. It's not something I've considered doing, so I haven't done it to confirm that it will work.

[BlankSlate56]

ahhh... So Originals is the OCR'd document while Archive is the actual original non-OCR'd file? I never could keep that distinction clear despite reading the docs. I'm just trying to keep my folder hierarchy to a minimum. I frequently link documents into my bookkeeping software that uses windows explorer. Having to navigate through multiple levels really gets old.

[mpfl]

Actually, I'm wrong. I just checked an invoice I was emailed. originals is the file before paperless-ng processes it, and archive is post-processing.

I was mistaken because I assumed the larger file was the processed file.