Adding and removing knowledge bases

Creating an additional knowledge base

You can have more than one knowledge base on your account. Content can be synced across knowledge bases, but settings (including theme), libraries (files & snippets etc) and reporting is all kept separate for each knowledge base. 

To add a new knowledge base:

  1. Go to your dashboard by clicking on the owl in the top left of the navigation bar or clicking on your profile icon/name and selecting Knowledge Bases from the dropdown.
  2. Select the + New Knowledge Base button there:
  3. This will open a pop-up that will prompt you for some details about the knowledge base. Follow the instructions.

If you don't see the option to add a new knowledge base, you don't have another knowledge base slot available on your account, so you'll need to add one:

If you pay via invoice, contact us to add another knowledge base.

If you pay via in-app credit-card, you can add additional knowledge bases to your account at any time. To do so:

  1. Click on your profile icon/name in the upper right.
  2. Select Account from the dropdown.
  3. The Knowledge Bases number controls the number of knowledge bases in your account. Use the + and - controls to adjust the number of knowledge bases to your desired total.
  4. As you toggle, you'll see the overall Plan Cost price adjust. Don't worry--we aren't charging you, we just want you to see how the new knowledge bases will affect your overall costs.
  5. Once you've adjusted the Knowledge Bases, an Upgrade button will appear in the Plan Cost section, just below the cost summary. Click this button to save your changes to the number of Knowledge Bases (or Authors).
  6. We will charge the card on file for the new knowledge base, and the knowledge base slot becomes available in your account.
  7. Head to the dashboard by clicking the owl in the upper left and create a new knowledge base there. Be sure you assign at least one author to the new knowledge base!


Copy a knowledge base

If you have room on your account, you can create a copy of an existing knowledge base for a variety of purposes: testing/troubleshooting, translating, new versions of software, and as a template.

The following items will NOT copy over:

  • File library and labels (all images and files in the content of the new, copied knowledge base will link to the original source knowledge base's file library)
  • Synonyms
  • Revisions
  • Related Articles
  • Shared content relationships (though the articles/categories will be copied in full, just no longer linked) See Synced content in copied knowledge bases for steps in how to audit and re-create shared content

To copy your knowledge base:

  1. Go to your profile icon/name in the upper right and select Knowledge Bases or click on the little owl in the top left of the navigation bar to get to the site dashboard.
  2. Click on the gear icon in the top right of the knowledge base you want to copy.
    If you do not have a gear icon, you do not have permission to copy a knowledge base. Contact your knowledge base administrator. If you see the gear but don't see the Copy option, your account does not have any available knowledge bases and you'll need to upgrade your subscription to make a copy.
  3. Click Copy.
    Click the gear icon and select Copy
    If you do see the gear cog but don't see Copy, you probably don't have any available knowledge base slots to put a copy into. See Creating an additional knowledge base for more information.
  4. Give the copy a new name and URL. Leave the option to sync all the content unchecked unless you are sure you want to do this (see below).
    Sample Copy Knowledge Base pop-up
  5. Click Copy Project.

You'll see a progress bar while the knowledge base is copied--larger knowledge bases take longer to copy. You'll receive a confirmation message once the copy is complete.

Once a copy exists, it will take longer for these features to become available:

  • All content to be fully indexed for search: usually within 1-2 hours
  • All article PDFs to be generated: these get split into small batches and run over the next 2-24 hours, depending on the size of the knowledge base

So if you view the knowledge base right after the copy finishes and search doesn't seem to be fully work an article PDF doesn't load, don't panic--this is normal!

If you've taken a copy of a knowledge base and would like to delete the original and move its files/update content links to files to the new knowledge base, please contact us to help!

What does "sync all content" do?

Sync all content will create each top-level category in your new knowledge base with the existing top-level category in the source knowledge base. This effectively synchronizes all content changes between the two knowledge bases, so that updating content in one knowledge base (such as creating or deleting articles, editing article content, and so on) will also automatically update the synced knowledge base. See Synced knowledge base for how these syncs work.

In most cases, synchronizing all content is not the option you want to choose when copying a knowledge base. All copies will take a point-in-time copy of the original source knowledge base. If you leave "sync all content" unchecked, the two knowledge bases remain independent moving forward: edits to one will not impact edits to the other. Only check "sync all content" if you want the two knowledge bases to continue to mirror each other's content moving forward permanently.

If you've accidentally synced all content and did not mean to, please contact KnowledgeOwl support to fully unlink the knowledge bases.

Delete a knowledge base

You can delete a knowledge base you are no longer using.

  1. Click on your profile icon/name in the upper right and select Knowledge Bases or click on the little owl in the top left of the navigation bar to go to your dashboard.
  2. Click on the gear icon in the top right of the knowledge base you want to delete.
  3. Click Delete.
  4. Once you click delete, a pop-up will open asking you if you're sure you want to delete the knowledge base, and list its name. Click OK to delete this knowledge base:

If you accidentally delete a knowledge base, please contact us for help retrieving it.

If you don't intend to use that knowledge base slot for a new knowledge base and would like to stop paying for it, see Removing an unused knowledge base slot to downgrade your account.

Removing an unused knowledge base slot

If you pay for KnowledgeOwl via invoice, please contact us to add or remove a knowledge base slot from your account.

If you pay for KnowledgeOwl with a credit card entered directly in Account, you can add or remove knowledge bases yourself, at any time. We'll automatically charge a prorated amount (for an upgrade) or prorate a credit (downgrade) and adjust your upcoming payments based on the changes you make. See Creating an additional knowledge base for adding knowledge bases.

To remove a knowledge base you aren't using:

  1. Click on your profile icon/name in the upper right.
  2. Select Account from the dropdown to view your account details.
  3. The Knowledge Bases number is the number of knowledge bases available to your account. Use the + and - controls to adjust the number of knowledge bases to your desired total.
    • If you try to remove a knowledge base but are currently using all knowledge base slots, you'll see a warning telling you that you'll need to delete at least xx knowledge bases in order to downgrade:
      Warning message you'll see if you need to delete a knowledge base before downgrading
    • If you see this warning, you'll need to delete a knowledge base from the dashboard before you can remove the knowledge base slot.
  4. You can toggle the controls to see the cost of removing knowledge base slots.
  5. Once you've made changes to remove a knowledge base, a Downgrade button will appear at the bottom of the Plan Cost section. Click this button to save your changes.
  6. A pop-up confirmation window will appear, which explains that we will credit you a prorated amount for the remainder of your current subscription and will confirm your new subscription cost. Select OK to continue with the downgrade.
  7. Once you click OK, we will remove the knowledge base slots and add the credit to your subscription.

If you have trouble doing any of the above, please contact us !