Hi Jen,

There are two general categories of files that will end up with rows in the exp.datas query:

1. Files that have been uploaded to the server using WebDav, including those uploaded by the standard file management UIs. We use the row to keep track of who uploaded the file and other metadata.

2. Files that have been referenced from assay runs and/or are referenced by runs generated by an analysis pipeline (such as MS2 or MS1 searches).

If you drop files onto the server's file system by some other mechanism, they won't automatically get a row. Also, most other server processes that produce files (such as unzipping a study archive, as you noticed) won't create rows.

I hope this helps.

Thanks,
Josh