[Schlaefer]

I also use hazel for years now and with it it's not a mayor issue. But I itches me from a more philosophical point: GTD and GTD tools should help me organize, not add needless clutter I have to manage.

[hypotyposis]

Originally Posted by Schlaefer

I also use hazel for years now and with it it's not a mayor issue. But I itches me from a more philosophical point: GTD and GTD tools should help me organize, not add needless clutter I have to manage.

Hmm... so your physical files auto-purge themselves yearly, after evaluating which would be useful to conserve and which not?

[Schlaefer]

Originally Posted by hypotyposis

Hmm... so your physical files auto-purge themselves yearly, after evaluating which would be useful to conserve and which not?

I decide how long I think my backups should go back in time and in which interval they should take place. After I did that the whole process is automated. That's why we have computers, to automate tasks, don't we? :)

[hypotyposis]

Originally Posted by Schlaefer

I decide how long I think my backups should go back in time and in which interval they should take place. After I did that the whole process is automated. That's why we have computers, to automate tasks, don't we? :)

I think a point that was made by whpalmer in another thread is that there's always some amount of decision that needs to be made by the user. If you're comfortable with selecting which backups to keep based solely on time, of course it makes sense to automate. However, IMHO, an advantage of electronic media is that there are very few limits to storage capabilities. While I go through my physical filing system yearly and take a look at each folder to decide whether it should stay in the system for future reference or can be disposed of (a task that cannot be automated, since it requires decision-making), I find it very convenient to keep unlimited archives of my OF database without having to worry about deleting something I might one day need.

[Schlaefer]

Originally Posted by hypotyposis

…

It's not solely by time, but it is easy and sufficient in the most cases, especially when the object in question was created by an automated, time based criteria in the first place.

Storage space is virtually limitless and dirt cheap when you think about local hard drive storage. But I also use more limited storage solutions, e.g. online backup and I applaud every app that doesn't generate content that grows limitless in the background and that doesn't need special backup rules and/or extra applications like Hazel.
It's like the "Move Old Data to Archive" command. I don't *need* that. I could leave it in OF forever, there's no performance reason to remove these projects.

I also see you point archiving forever, but I never treated my OF files as project documentation needed later for reference.†

A "Remove Backups older than 1 Week|1 Month|1 Year" dropdown shouldn't exactly be rocket science delaying further features by months, or at least this is my impression. But I'm no CS mayor either. ;)

† edit: On a second thought I've done so, but I exported just the project and used a plain text file (taskpaper) which goes with the rest of the project documentation.

[endoftheQ]

I'm not sure I get why this has to be 'one or the other'. I stuff OmniFocus with audio, pics, attachments, etc. and the backups are not insignificant. As I already have software that backups up everything on my various computers to a server every 24 hours, the option to set 'keep backups for [ ] days' within OF would be very welcome. As it is, and because I'm too lazy to clean up after OF more than every few months, I'm keeping horrendous quantities of local backups as well as archiving copies of those backups!

[johnrover]

+1

I want "set it and forget it" control of backup retention and removal