Everything you import into MAXQDA is normally stored inside the MAXQDA project file. That is what makes a project easy to handle: one file holds your documents together with your codes, memos and everything else you create. Some files are too large for that to work. A project that contains videos, or a big library of images and PDFs, becomes slow to save, awkward to back up and too large to send to a colleague. Those files are kept in a separate folder on your computer instead, the folder for external files, and the project points to them. Files stored this way are called external files, or Externals. This page explains what is stored where, how to change it, and how to take external files with you when you move a project to another computer.
What is stored inside the project file, and what outside
Most document types, text documents and tables among them, are stored inside the MAXQDA project file. During import a copy of the original file is placed in the project, so you can edit or delete the document in MAXQDA without affecting the original file, and changes to the original file have no effect on the data in MAXQDA.
Two kinds of file are kept outside the project file instead:
- PDF and image documents above the size limit. The limit is 5 MB by default, and you can change it.
- All audio and video files. These are never stored in the project file, whatever their size.
When you import a PDF or image above the limit, MAXQDA tells you that the file will be stored outside the project file rather than embedded in it. The file is copied to the folder for external files, and the original stays where it is.
An externally stored document is no different to work with. It appears in the Document System with the same icon it would have if it were embedded, and nothing about it looks or behaves differently.
Where external files are stored, and how to change it
The size limit and the folder are both in MAXQDA's global preferences, which you open with the preferences icon in the lower left corner of the MAXQDA main window. Look in the General section, under the heading PDF and image documents:
- Do not embed files larger than [MB] sets the size above which PDF and image documents are stored outside the project file. The default is 5.
- Folder for external files sets where external files are stored.
As that heading says, the size limit does not apply to TeamCloud projects. The page General Preferences describes both settings alongside the rest.
Unless you change it, the folder for external files is:
- on Windows: [Documents]\MAXQDA_Externals
- on macOS: [Documents]/MAXQDA/Externals
If you change the folder, MAXQDA asks whether the files already in the old one should be moved across, and moves them only if you confirm. The setting is global, so this affects the external files of all your projects, not only the one that is open.
Moving a document out of the project file, or back into it
PDF and image documents can be moved either way at any time, whatever their size, so you can store a small PDF externally if you want to. Right-click the document in the Document System, select Properties, and go to the Storage section:
- In project stores the file inside the MAXQDA project file.
- In folder for external files stores it outside the project file. The section then also shows the path the document was imported from.
Text documents and tables have no Storage section, because they are always inside the project file. Audio and video files have none either, because they are always outside it.
To move several documents at once, go to the Home tab and select External Files > Store Documents in Folder for External Files. The dialog lists the PDF and image documents that are currently inside the project file, with the size of each, and you select the ones to move out.
Seeing which files your project stores externally
Go to the Home tab and select External Files > List External Files. For each external file the dialog shows the document it belongs to, the file type, the full path, the size, and whether the file is in the folder for external files or in the project's own folder. Clicking a path opens that location on your computer. To open the folder for external files directly, select External Files > Show Folder for External Files.
A media file appears in this list twice: the audio or video file itself, and a small media data file that MAXQDA creates for it the first time you open it. Both are treated as external files. The location of an individual audio or video file is also shown in the document's properties, in the Media File section, together with the file name, size and duration.
What you can delete, and what you should leave alone
MAXQDA works from its own copy of a file, whether that copy sits inside the project file or in the folder for external files. It no longer needs the file you imported from, so you can move, rename or delete that original without affecting your project.
What MAXQDA does need is its own copy. If you move or rename a file inside the folder for external files, the document loses its link to it. For a PDF or image document you can restore the link in the document's properties, in the Storage section.
Two files with the same name
You can import several documents with the same name, and inside the project file that causes no problem. It becomes one as soon as more than one of them is stored externally, because the folder for external files cannot hold two files with the same name. MAXQDA asks for confirmation, and the file stored last replaces the earlier one. Give such files distinct names before importing them.
Taking external files to another computer
A MAXQDA project file does not contain its external files, so moving a project that uses them means moving two things. On the computer you are starting from:
- Go to the Home tab and select External Files > Bundle External Data Files. MAXQDA collects all external files belonging to the current project into a zip archive, named after the project, for example Projectname.mqda.zip, and saves it next to the project file.
- Transfer both the project file, which has the extension .mqda, and the zip archive.
On the other computer:
- Open the MAXQDA project file.
- Go to the Home tab and select External Files > Unpack Bundled Data Files, then choose the zip archive in the file dialog. MAXQDA unpacks it and copies the files into your folder for external files. If the archive is in the same folder as the project file, MAXQDA finds it and offers to unpack it.
