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SOLVED: Mysteriously growing OmniFocus.ofocus file Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
If the problem is .client files, that should only be happening (as far as I know) when you change your sync settings. So leaving your sync settings alone should be enough to resolve it.

If the problem is not .client files, then 1.0.2 may not fix it either. If you're willing to let us peek at your data, emailing it to us will probably help us figure out why it's swelling.
 
dude, I'm syncing both a MacBook Pro and an iPhone, and I'm not seeing any problems syncing with my iPhone - no database bloat, no stranded .client files, no real problems at all.

Here are some specifics: ~320 KB database file, ~2500 actions, syncing through MobileMe, multiple client and zip files appear on server but get cleaned up (by OmniFocus on my Mac, I guess), only one client file appears from my iPhone, most of my changes are initiated on my Mac but some come from my iPhone.

So I don't really have any advice other than it is possible to get the system working. I didn't do anything special; it just all worked.

-Dennis

PS - My database size does fluctuate by about 100 KB when I make lots of changes, but it has been returning to around 300 KB after about an hour or so. It seems like things take about that long to get cleaned up, maybe from the automatic syncing, which happens hourly I believe.

Last edited by Toadling; 2008-07-22 at 08:59 PM.. Reason: Added note about DB size fluctuations
 
When you say your Mac cleans everything up, what do you mean exactly.

I have 24 .client files and have only sync'd my iMac, MacBook, and iPhone. Both machines have the latest build along with my iPhone having the latest build for it. I am wondering what the freek is going on since I just started over tonight with a brand new DB and have less than 30 actions.

For instance, my Mac just sync'd. The DB went from 360 KB to 304 KB. Client files reduce by ~16 down to 8 or so. This will continue to improve as my iMac sync's? What if my MB doesn't sync for a few days? Will it hold or bloat again if my iPhone resyncs?

Just trying to understand how this works.

Last edited by dude; 2008-07-22 at 09:05 PM..
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lizard View Post
If the problem is .client files, that should only be happening (as far as I know) when you change your sync settings. So leaving your sync settings alone should be enough to resolve it.

If the problem is not .client files, then 1.0.2 may not fix it either. If you're willing to let us peek at your data, emailing it to us will probably help us figure out why it's swelling.
You will have my file in the morning. Would manually syncing cause problems?
 
dude, make extra sure your iMac and MacBook are running at least OmniFocus 1.1 build 77.7.0.103163

Here's a rough sketch of why the extra .client files cause bloat:
One file containing 10 changes takes up less space on many file systems than 10 separate files. And if one of those changes cancels another out (change a due date to tomorrow and back to today), they can be eliminated entirely.

But those compaction strategies will only cause trouble if another OmniFocus client knows about some changes but not the others. So each client writes a .client file, which tells all the other clients what the last transaction it saw was. If one of the apps goofs up (or the sync process gets interrupted) and leaves an old .client file around, all the other clients will think there's still someone who hasn't gotten the recent changes. So they just keep adding new changes and no one can compact all the old transactions for fear of confusing this ghost client.

OmniFocus on the iPhone doesn't do any of these transaction compactions because they're a little more processor intensive and the iPhone's connection to the WebDAV server is more likely to get interrupted than a Mac client.
 
thanks for the explanation. I am running the latest builds for sure. I will recheck in the morning.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by dude View Post
When you say your Mac cleans everything up, what do you mean exactly... I have 24 .client files and have only sync'd my iMac, MacBook, and iPhone.
I think every time one of your Macs sync with the server, a new client file is created, uniquely-named with a time stamp. This seems to happen whether there are outstanding changes or not. Also, a collection of zipped files gets copied to the server, one for each transaction with your database. Finally, it looks like the Mac client removes any old client files (older than an hour?) and merges any zip files that have already been synced to all clients.

Please note that I really have no idea what I'm talking about. The above paragraph is pure speculation based on what I've observed on my system. The Omni Group could very easily step up and tell me I'm completely wrong. :)

If I'm right, though, there's no longer any need to worry about excess client or zip files on the server, at least not ones created by your Mac clients. It looks like the ones that get created now are being done on purpose and get cleaned up in time.

I gather from Lizard's post that the iPhone client hasn't yet adopted this new syncing approach. It still creates only a single client file to identify itself (rather than a new client file for each instance of a sync session like the Mac client does). But unless you've had some kind of a mix up in setting up syncing with your iPhone, this shouldn't really be problem either. One client file gets created for each iPhone and it stays that way, at least for now.

Hope this helps.

-Dennis

UPDATE - I started writing my post before I saw Lizard's response above. Now I'm not clear whether the Mac client is supposed to create a new client file on the server with every sync or not. It sure looks like mine is doing that now, but maybe that's not right. However, I can also see that the old client files are getting cleaned up; after waiting an hour or so, there are a lot fewer of them and my database size goes back down to around its original size.

Last edited by Toadling; 2008-07-22 at 09:47 PM..
 
My understanding of the situation may be slightly out of date too.
 
Thanks Dude & Toadling for the walkthrough on how to see what is in "Show Package Contents". Luckily I only saw one the two .client files I was supponsed to have, one for my Mac and one for my iPhone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Toadling View Post
I would strongly discourage anyone from going into the database package and deleting files willy-nilly unless you know exactly what you are doing or you're willing to accept the consequences of possible annihilation of the entire human civilization, and maybe some data loss
I definitely never went into this database package before so I'm pretty sure I never deleted anything from there.

Should I be concerned if I, as a final step procedure when my iPhone app becomes unable to load and after backing up my database, delete my Omnifocus.ofocus document on the iDisk and then sync my Mac database again onto the iDisk, then delete the database from my iPhone, and then reload this new smaller database from the iPhone.

Otherwise, the database seems to get too big on the IDisk to open on the iPhone and this is the only fix I've found.

Hopefully the new versions of OF for both the Mac and the IPhone will fix the mysteriously growing database problem, however, as of yesterday no such luck yet.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jt32 View Post
Should I be concerned if I, as a final step procedure when my iPhone app becomes unable to load and after backing up my database, delete my Omnifocus.ofocus document on the iDisk and then sync my Mac database again onto the iDisk, then delete the database from my iPhone, and then reload this new smaller database from the iPhone.
It sounds like you're essentially starting syncing over from scratch, as if you had just gotten a new iPhone and were setting it up for the first time.

I don't think this is really a problem. But I wonder what happens in this scenario:
  1. You have multiple transaction files in the OmniFocus database on your Mac that have been merged with the Mac client but not with other clients.
  2. You turn off syncing and delete OmniFocus from your server and from your iPhone.
  3. You then turn syncing back on and everything gets copied to the server.
  4. Then reinstall OmniFocus on your iPhone and point it to your server to sync the database.

What happens to those leftover transaction files? Presumably, the server and the iPhone both have the complete database copied from your Mac, so none of the clients need those leftover transaction files. Do they get cleaned up automatically even if they don't need to be merged anywhere?

All of this discussion is really moot since it's based entirely on speculation. There simply isn't enough information to make a decision or give advice with any real confidence. Consequently, it's risky to make assumptions and start deleting files, especially inside the database package (unless someone from the Omni Group says it's OK).

This is Omni's domain, they're the only ones who really know what's going on, and they're clearly still making changes under the hood. I think the best advice is to simply sit tight and wait for some authoritative response from the Omni Group. That might not be what you want to hear, but that's the reality of beta testing. ;-)

-Dennis
 
 


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