Where Does Paperless-ngx Store Documents?
Paperless-ngx data, media, consume and export volumes plus bare metal paths and backup.
Last updated
Paperless-ngx splits four jobs across four mounts. Data holds state, media holds the archived originals, consume is the inbox it watches, and export stages portable backups.
Originals stay pristine with checksums, and a sanity checker verifies them on schedule. That makes the media volume plus the database the two things that must survive any migration.
Where Paperless-ngx stores this, by platform
/usr/src/paperless/data
Container data path; map host dirs or named volumes for data, media, consume (./consume) and export (./export). Bare metal defaults: /opt/paperless/data, media, consume. Env: PAPERLESS_DATA_DIR, PAPERLESS_MEDIA_ROOT, PAPERLESS_CONSUMPTION_DIR.
Frequently asked questions
Where are my actual PDFs in Paperless-ngx?
In the media volume, filed by internal ID by default. Use the exporter or a filename format template for human named copies; never hand rearrange the live tree.
What do I back up for Paperless-ngx?
Data and media volumes plus the database (Postgres dump or SQLite file). Consume is transient inbox and export is output staging, so both can rebuild.
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