Turn off "Back up database"

[Pat Gilmour]

Hi,

I don't need (don't want) Omnifocus to back up my database every day.

I launch the app every morning and then have to wait about 20 seconds while it performs this chore. I also don't need the growing folder of backups as I backup my machine several times a day anyway.

So, is there a hidden plist or something that allows me to kill this feature?

Many thanks,

Pat

[Greg Jones]

I'd be in favor of this also. With my Time Machine backups, I believe I have backups of my OmniFocus databases well under control. Even if the OmniGroup does not want to implement a full 'off' preference, an option to limit the number of backups maintained would be a welcome addition.

[Toadling]

Hmm, I could have sworn I had seen a hidden default to fine tune the backup interval, but I can't seem to find it now. Maybe I'm thinking of the sync interval?

As an aside, I've found Hazel (http://www.noodlesoft.com/hazel.php) to be really useful in keeping my number of OmniFocus backups at a reasonable level.

-Dennis

[Pat Gilmour]

THanks for the answers.

I dump the backups straight into: ~/.Trash

I used to store them elsewhere - they got up to 1.5gb!

But they still take far too long to run and I'd like the option to turn them off altogether.

[Toadling]

I dump the backups straight into: ~/.Trash

Haha, that's a good idea. But I agree, an option to disable the feature entirely would be best.

I wonder why your backups take so long? I usually don't even notice OmniFocus doing a backup on my system until I see the Growl notification that it's completed. Do you have a particularly large database or maybe a lot of attachments?

-Dennis

[Pat Gilmour]

Well my db was 25mb in spite of having zero attachments and nearly everything archived, so I ran File>Compact Database and now it's 37k!

There's a fair chance, I suspect, this will make the backups a lot faster. Will see tomorrow when I launch OF.

Cheers, Pat

[Toadling]

Sounds like you had/have a stale sync client (i.e. a registered sync client who hasn't synced in a long time). OmniFocus only compacts its transaction trail once all the registered clients have synced. If one or more clients don't sync, that transaction trail can get quite long, leading to a very large database!

I believe the upcoming 1.8 release (now in beta) adds a new feature that automatically unregisters any sync client that hasn't synced in 3 weeks (or some similar period of time).

-Dennis