[Lightstorm]

OK, so until the great guys (and gals) at OmniGroup allow us to choose JUST to sync active projects (thereby hopefully making syncing to my iPhone faster since my file is very large), I'd like to temporarily move inactive projects to another file in the backup directory. I'll create a current backup, then just remove the active projects from the backup, and rename it. Then in my weekly review, I'll 'slide over' via drag-n-drop any projects that will become active and resync. Since there's less data, I'm hopeful this will drastically cut down in syncing. Plus, I really don't need to see inactive projects in my phone.

So, here's my question:

How does OF know what file to sync up to MobileMe? Meaning, if I have my default file open, and the "Inactive Projects" file I created open, does OF know just so sync my default file? I'm assuming the answer is yes, since (I think) this file is in a different location than the default backup directory OF uses.

Just wanted to make sure my Inactive file is not going to mistakenly make it up to my MobileMe directory.

Thanks!

-Marc

[whpalmer4]

OF will only sync the data in your "default" database (stored in ~/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus/OmniFocus.ofocus) and there is no danger that it will become confused about which file is which, only that you will become confused about which file is which as you shuffle the projects back and forth :-)

If you really need to do this, it should work, but I'm skeptical that it will actually net you any appreciable time savings. The syncs that rewrite the entire database (compaction) might be a bit faster, but depending on your work patterns, they might not happen very often during regular use (you could certainly arrange for it to be that way, only doing so at night, for example, if you want). The syncs that don't do so and where the inactive projects haven't been changed shouldn't incur much of a performance penalty because the data only gets shoveled over once. Now, I agree that it would be a win to avoid having truly inactive data cluttering up your phone, and would do what you propose if I thought the benefits were worth the trouble. As I said, I'm skeptical that you'll actually make your life easier doing this, and would encourage you to try what I hope are some obvious experiments to see what kind of best-case improvements you might get before spending a lot of effort trying to implement it. If you do get results that suggest I'm wrong, please, let us know!

[Brian]

Just in case... I assume you've used the "Move Old Data to Archive" feature already? If you haven't, you can probably shed a good chunk of data by doing so.

[SpiralOcean]

My syncing slows down after about a month of use. Running the smooshing script dramatically improves the syncing. From sync times of 5 to 10 minutes down to under a minute.

http://forums.omnigroup.com/showpost...87&postcount=1

[Lightstorm]

@Brian,
Yes, I usually do this weekly.

@SpiralOcean (and @Brian for that matter),
Wasn't the 1.02 updated supposed to fix this so we didn't have to run the script, or is that not the case?

@whpalmer
I've taken your advice and moved all projects back to the iPhone. After doing the inital 'shift' of projects, it was a lot of work for the amount of time I'd probably save. Plus, I didn't want to take a chance on moving all these projects around and then getting 'lost' as to their true location. Thanks for the advice!

[SpiralOcean]

I thought the 1.02 fix was supposed to take care of this. But my syncing has been slowing down. I just ran the smooshing script and it syncs like butter now. I am running the newest versions of all software.
I have two desktops and one iPhone that is syncing.
One of the desktops has tiger installed on it. The other one leopard.

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by SpiralOcean

I thought the 1.02 fix was supposed to take care of this. But my syncing has been slowing down. I just ran the smooshing script and it syncs like butter now. I am running the newest versions of all software.
I have two desktops and one iPhone that is syncing.
One of the desktops has tiger installed on it. The other one leopard.

Once a day, make sure all three are in sync at the same time. If you do that, you should have your database compacted without need for the smooshing script. The 1.0.2 fix helps, but it is still possible to operate 3 devices in such a fashion that the auto-compaction won't run. If your client display in the Sync Preferences shows all the devices having been synced in the last hour or so, and you arrange for that to happen again periodically, you'll get the compaction. I've got three clients, 2 of which are the same machine running different operating systems, but as long as I have all three run OmniFocus at least briefly at about the same time every day, my count of files in the OmniFocus.ofocus package stays reasonable and syncs are speedy. I've got over 10,000 actions in my database, FWIW...

[Lightstorm]

Originally Posted by SpiralOcean

I thought the 1.02 fix was supposed to take care of this. But my syncing has been slowing down. I just ran the smooshing script and it syncs like butter now. I am running the newest versions of all software.
I have two desktops and one iPhone that is syncing.
One of the desktops has tiger installed on it. The other one leopard.

Wow! What a difference after smooshing! I had done this before a few months ago and really saw an improvement, but I took 'compacting' off my reminder list as I thought 1.02 fixed it. Just to be on the safe side, I'll be doing this every 2 weeks.

My syncs are taking about 20 seconds now instead of 3+ minutes! Thanks SpiralOcean!

[SpiralOcean]

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

Once a day, make sure all three are in sync at the same time. If you do that, you should have your database compacted without need for the smooshing script. The 1.0.2 fix helps, but it is still possible to operate 3 devices in such a fashion that the auto-compaction won't run. If your client display in the Sync Preferences shows all the devices having been synced in the last hour or so, and you arrange for that to happen again periodically, you'll get the compaction. I've got three clients, 2 of which are the same machine running different operating systems, but as long as I have all three run OmniFocus at least briefly at about the same time every day, my count of files in the OmniFocus.ofocus package stays reasonable and syncs are speedy. I've got over 10,000 actions in my database, FWIW...

That helped my understanding of the compaction. I was shutting down my work computer at night. I'll try leaving it on to see if that helps.

The choke point in having three devices to sync within an hour is the iPhone. I did some tests this morning. I think the iPhone will continue to sync even if the iPhone has locked itself? As long as the OF application is active and automatic syncing turned on in the app, it will still sync.

If I'm wrong about that please correct me.

[SpiralOcean]

Originally Posted by Lightstorm

Wow! What a difference after smooshing! I had done this before a few months ago and really saw an improvement, but I took 'compacting' off my reminder list as I thought 1.02 fixed it. Just to be on the safe side, I'll be doing this every 2 weeks.

My syncs are taking about 20 seconds now instead of 3+ minutes! Thanks SpiralOcean!

Woohooo... glad to be of assistance. I know how frustrating it is to watch that sync status.