Question: What happens during Purge Operation?

[Chewie9999]

Is it just the mp3 files that are deleted?
If I copied off the mp3s files before the purge happened (I have limited space on my Pi), can I somehow link them up with the detections in the database some time in the future?

[wokkeltje13]

for me "Purge" is doing nothing, the disk is just running full if I don't remove all data once in a while. Could this be an issue?

[MueJosh]

This topic fits better to "discussion", it's not an issue

Is it just the mp3 files that are deleted?

Yes

If I copied off the mp3s files before the purge happened (I have limited space on my Pi), can I somehow link them up with the detections in the database some time in the future?

The birds.db doesn't get purged, you can still see the detections (and other information)- but not the audio file.
If you copy the audio files/folder to the intended directory (on your pi) you can see and listen to them again.

It's also possible on your pc with SQLite, but I don't know how

[Chewie9999]

This topic fits better to "discussion", it's not an issue

True, although it would be nice if the documentation is updated to explain this.
Thanks for the reply!

[MueJosh]

This repo doesn't get any updates for now...

If you want a fork that's still maintained I can recommend the birdnetpi fork from @Nachtzuster

[Chewie9999]

This repo doesn't get any updates for now...

Oh :(

If you want a fork that's still maintained I can recommend the birdnetpi fork from @Nachtzuster

Thank you, I will check it out!

[wokkeltje13]

can you help me how to modify to a new fork? or do I need to do a fresh install?

[MueJosh]

can you help me how to modify to a new fork? or do I need to do a fresh install?

There is no need for a fresh install
Check out migrating to nachtzuster fork