Frequently asked questions
Short answers to common questions, each with a link to the page that explains it in full.
Files and formats
Section titled “Files and formats”Which files can JSON Digger open?
Section titled “Which files can JSON Digger open?”JSON, NDJSON (also called JSON Lines), and plain text files, and any of them compressed with gzip (.gz) or Zstandard (.zst). JSON Digger can also open JSON from the clipboard, a URL, or a live stream. See Open files.
Can I open YAML or CSV, or choose the format myself?
Section titled “Can I open YAML or CSV, or choose the format myself?”No. CSV and YAML files open as plain text, and there is no way to pick a format by hand. See Supported formats.
Why does my file look broken?
Section titled “Why does my file look broken?”Usually the file is in an encoding other than UTF-8, such as UTF-16, or it is an NDJSON file named .json. See Troubleshooting.
Can I open a ZIP archive?
Section titled “Can I open a ZIP archive?”No: JSON Digger opens .gz and .zst archives only, so extract a ZIP, bzip2, or xz archive with another tool first. See Compressed files.
Large files
Section titled “Large files”How large a file can JSON Digger open?
Section titled “How large a file can JSON Digger open?”JSON Digger sets no size limit on a file you open: it reads the file from disk instead of loading it, so files of 10 GB and more open. Some features have their own limits, listed in Limits.
Why do the counts change after a large file opens?
Section titled “Why do the counts change after a large file opens?”JSON Digger shows the beginning of a large file at once and indexes the rest in the background, while the status bar shows indexing… N%. The counts are complete when it finishes. See How large files open.
Why does the tree show only 4,096 children?
Section titled “Why does the tree show only 4,096 children?”The tree shows the first 4,096 children of an object or array, and the first 4,096 records of an NDJSON file. Search, queries, and the Table view still cover all of them. See Very large objects and arrays.
How much memory does JSON Digger use?
Section titled “How much memory does JSON Digger use?”Tens of megabytes for the file itself, even for a 10 GB file. SQL queries, jq, and JSONPath use more. See Memory and disk space.
Why does a file open faster the second time?
Section titled “Why does a file open faster the second time?”JSON Digger saves the index of each file it opens. When you open the same unchanged file again, it loads that index instead of indexing the file again. See The index cache.
Editing and saving
Section titled “Editing and saving”Does opening or searching a file change it?
Section titled “Does opening or searching a file change it?”No. JSON Digger writes to a file only when you save edits to it; search, queries, merging, and repairs leave it as it is. See How editing works.
Which files can I edit?
Section titled “Which files can I edit?”UTF-8 JSON files of up to 2 GiB, opened from disk. NDJSON, plain text, compressed, merged, pasted, and fetched documents are read-only. What you can edit says how to get an editable copy of each.
How many edits can I undo?
Section titled “How many edits can I undo?”One: undo goes back to the state before the last edit, and saving clears it. To go back further, discard all the edits; see Undo and redo.
Does saving reformat my file?
Section titled “Does saving reformat my file?”No: an edit replaces only the part of the file you changed, and the rest keeps its indentation, key order, and line endings. To reformat a whole file, use Save Formatted Copy.
Your data
Section titled “Your data”Where does JSON Digger keep its settings and caches?
Section titled “Where does JSON Digger keep its settings and caches?”In two folders named com.json-digger.app, one for app data and one for caches; Data folders lists them for each system. jdig keeps its settings in its own file; see Configure jdig.
Where are the credentials for fetched URLs stored?
Section titled “Where are the credentials for fetched URLs stored?”In the system’s credential store: Windows Credential Manager, the macOS Keychain, or the Secret Service on Linux. They are never written to JSON Digger’s own files. See Remembered credentials.
What stays on the computer after I uninstall?
Section titled “What stays on the computer after I uninstall?”Your preferences, workspaces, index cache, decompressed copies, and saved credentials, unless you delete them. See Uninstall JSON Digger.
jdig and other systems
Section titled “jdig and other systems”What is the difference between jdig and the desktop app?
Section titled “What is the difference between jdig and the desktop app?”jdig is a terminal viewer: it browses, searches, and queries JSON and NDJSON files, and runs queries from scripts. It does not edit files or have the desktop app’s views and panels. It is a separate download. See Get started with jdig.
Which keys do I use on macOS?
Section titled “Which keys do I use on macOS?”See Keys on macOS on the Keyboard shortcuts page.