User/Library/Cache/Metadata folder has grown to nearly 2GB??

I just noticed that my DEVONthink Metadata folder, located within the User/Library/Cache/ directory has grown to nearly 2GB in size!

First of all, I never even knew this folder existed, and I’ve certainly never backed it up - that is, if it does contain information related to the metadata I’ve applied to my documents over the years which I might want to have a backup of in case my computer does have a melt down…

Can someone help clarify the following:

  • What this folder is for?
  • Is it somehow possible to embed all relevant metadata within each document itself, rather than in a external folder somewhere else?
  • Is there any way to reduce the size of this ‘Metadata’ folder so that it’s not eating up 2GB of my HD?
  • Does it need to be backed-up (assuming that I don’t backup using one of the scripts, but instead simply use a backup program like ChronoSync or Retrospect to backup my “DEVONthink Pro Databases” folder (which contains several of my DB database packages).

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

This folder is needed if you want to use Spotlight to search your DEVON database(s). If you don’t want this, go to the File > Database Properties and untick the Create Spotlight Index.
If you do want it, you may want to move that folder to the Trash and use the aforementioned panel to Rebuild the index. That will guarantee that the Rebuild starts from a fresh slate.

You do not need to make a backup of anything that is in a Library/Cache folder, Time Machine will avoid it like the plague as should other backup programs.

Thanks for your help!