Where Does Okular Store Annotations?
Where Okular keeps annotations, bookmarks, and config on Linux across its data folders.
Last updated
Okular separates markup from documents. Annotations and reading state live as XML under ~/.local/share/okular/docdata, while behavior settings sit in ~/.config/okularrc. Your PDFs never move.
That design makes markup portable but path-sensitive. Restored annotations reattach when files return to identical paths. Exact filenames shift slightly between KDE generations, so copy the whole docdata dir rather than single files.
Where Okular stores this, by platform
~/.local/share/okular/docdata/
Per-document annotation XML. Config in ~/.config/okularrc beside it. Keep PDFs at identical paths after restore or marks detach.
Frequently asked questions
How do I migrate Okular annotations?
Copy ~/.local/share/okular/docdata/ (per-document XML with annotations) plus okularrc to the new machine. Keep the PDFs at identical paths or annotations detach. Newer builds sync through the same docdata tree.
Annotations versus PDFs: what to back up?
Per-document data lands in docdata/ as XML beside a global config (okularrc / okularpartrc). The documents themselves stay wherever you opened them. Back up docdata rather than the PDFs to preserve markup.
Notice an outdated path? Let us know.