# When is the notebook\_files directory created?

**URL:** https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/when-is-the-notebook-files-directory-created/20282
**Category:** nbconvert
**Created:** [July 7, 2023, 9:03pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/when-is-the-notebook-files-directory-created/20282 "2023-07-07T21:03:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![jweill-aws](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/jweill-aws/32/16288_2.png) [@jweill-aws](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/jweill-aws)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2023, 9:03pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/when-is-the-notebook-files-directory-created/20282/1 "2023-07-07T21:03:51Z")

</div>

I have a notebook that contains embedded Vega-Lite visualizations and an embedded PNG file that shows up as a cell attachment. When I run `jupyter nbconvert notebook.ipynb --to notebook`, no `notebook_files/` subdirectory gets created to hold the attachment. I’ve tried to explicitly enable the ExtractOutput preprocessor with `--ExtractOutputPreprocessor.enabled=True`, but still no subdirectory gets created. The same goes if I specify `--to markdown`, which I had expected to create a subdirectory for attached images.

Under what circumstances is the `notebook_files/` subdirectory created and populated with files? Curious if I’m missing something, or if something is broken. Thanks!