Ability to disable either the Archive file creation

[BlankSlate56]

Perhaps I am misunderstanding the purpose of the Archive folder, but I would like to disable its use. I already have all of my files backed up multiple times, so creating automatically essentially 2 copies of each file is pointless to me.

I would like for Paperless to create only 1 version of each file it consumes, and let me worry about creating backup copies of the files. Perhaps I have overlooked this option, but I've read the docs multiple times looking for it and haven't found it yet.

Thanks.

[Sky-Dragon]

Hi @BlankSlate56,
I guess the solution you are looking for is PAPERLESS_OCR_MODE=skip_noarchive

PAPERLESS_OCR_MODE=
Tell paperless when and how to perform ocr on your documents. Four modes are available:
...
skip_noarchive: In addition to skip, paperless won’t create an archived version of your documents when it finds any text in them. This is useful if you don’t want to have two almost-identical versions of your digital documents in the media folder. This is the fastest option.

[jonaswinkler]

@steakhutzeee

For naming filenames in the media folder, search the documentation for PAPERLESS_FILENAME_FORMAT.

Archive file generation serves a couple purposes:

• Normalize PDF files, so they all comply with PDF/A standards (easier sharing, since pretty much all PDF viewers are able to read that).
• Add selectable text to image only documents.
• Preserve the original file in case it is needed again or in case archive file generation renders the file unusable (this already happened).
• Especially for office (word / excel / powerpoint), I really want to keep both the original and the converted PDF document.

skip_archive does not generate an archived version for files that don't benefit from that.

[steakhutzeee]

@steakhutzeee

For naming filenames in the media folder, search the documentation for PAPERLESS_FILENAME_FORMAT.

Archive file generation serves a couple purposes:

* Normalize PDF files, so they all comply with PDF/A standards (easier sharing, since pretty much all PDF viewers are able to read that).

* Add selectable text to image only documents.

* Preserve the original file in case it is needed again or in case archive file generation renders the file unusable (this already happened).

* Especially for office (word / excel / powerpoint), I really want to keep both the original and the converted PDF document.

skip_archive does not generate an archived version for files that don't benefit from that.

Thanks a lot! It's clear now :)

Only thing, you mean skip_noarchive right?

[jonaswinkler]

oops. exactly.

[jonaswinkler]

Keep an eye out for updates though, I'll probably add an option soon that skips archive file generation for PDF documents entirely, and that will replace skip_noarchive.

[tcurdt]

I'll probably add an option soon that skips archive file generation for PDF documents entirely

Uh, I would love to see that, too!