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I go through a process on a monthly basis to try to keep my database at a manageable size. I used to be able to get it down to 200-300k, but now it won't reduce below about 600k. That seems high to me but I can't figure out how to get it any lower.

I'm going to outline what I do, if anyone has suggestions on things I can do to reduce it further, I'd be grateful.

1. Sync both desktop and iphone versions
2. Move old data to archive
3. Double check to ensure that are no attachments. I have my preferences set to not import attachments, so currently there are none in my database.
4. Sync both versions again, just to be safe
5. Do a backup
6. Do a file/export to file type omnifocus document
7. Restore this exported file
8. Do another backup so now I can compare sizes of the backup from step 5 and this one. This is where I'll typically see the size go from about a 1mb to 600 kb.
9. Sync again

so I am getting a file size reduction, but it still seems large to me. Any suggestions on reducing it further?
 
Sounds like a lot of unnecessary work! OmniFocus should do most of this for you automatically if you just make sure that your devices sync regularly, and you make a habit of syncing before making changes when switching from one device to another. You still need to run the Archive command manually, of course.

"Wasted" space in your database comes predominantly from two things:
  1. completed actions and projects you no longer need
  2. transaction history awaiting compaction

Archiving gets rid of #1. The most effective way of tackling #2 is to sync all your devices, then on the Mac, unregister all of the clients (including the Mac) from the Show Clients display in the Sync preferences. Click the sync button, which will write out a fully compacted database to the server, then sync the other devices, making sure to choose to keep the sync database when asked.

You don't use attachments, apparently, but for anyone reading this who does, note that deleting an action with an attachment (or just the attachment) does not reclaim the space until those transactions have been compacted out of the history. As long as there is a device which hasn't been synced to know about the transaction deleting the attachment, the attachment has to be kept in the database.

It is possible to make an action grow to appreciable size by pasting a lot of heavily formatted text into the notes. I don't know of a convenient way to find "large" actions like this.
 
thanks for the reply.

it's really no more work than what you describe. Or, no more than an extra 30-60 seconds of work. It's essentially doing the same thing. Doing the file/export creates a compacted version, restoring it now provides a compacted new database. The before and after file backups are necessary in either scenario if you want to compare size before and after compaction.

and it gives me the same result. Still think I have a database that is larger than it should be. It's actually right around 700k with no attachments, which seems excessive. I use to be able to get it down to around a third of that. Doesn't make sense why it's this large.
 
I guess thought but not said was "why even bother checking the size, it is what it is" — you aren't going to start discarding projects just because the database is over a completely arbitrary size, are you? :-)

You really can skip the whole compaction bit, however, if you just sync regularly and sync before making changes after switching devices (this makes the graph likely to compact sooner, though with only 2 devices it may not matter as much as it does with my 4 to 6). The database isn't going to stay at its minimal size for long if you are using the program, so does it really matter that you know it is completely compacted on the 1st of the month?

Perhaps my tune would be a little different if I frequently had to sync over a 3G or EDGE connection, but even hauling over 10x the freight, I don't find this procedure to be a worthwhile use of my time, as I don't get any appreciable savings. I guess you must feel that you do — do you have any numbers?

How many projects and actions? Rob's OFQuickStats script gives a detailed breakdown: http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=18405
 
I do the backups because I like to see if I'm getting a size reduction. If you don't, you don't.

I find a 300k database behaves more crisply when I'm running errands and on 3G than a 1 meg database.

Yes, I've added tasks and projects in the last year since it was regularly compacting down to around 250k. But I'm also moving old data to archive as well. I certainly haven't tripled my number of projects and tasks so I don't understand the increase in size of the database.

plus when I had a dialogue a year ago with the tech ninjas on this subject (who recommended the procedure I describe above), they agreed that with no attachments, a database approaching a meg seems rather large. So I suspect it's not just usual usage creating this size. Something seems amiss.

hopefully someone from OmniGroup will see this and respond with their perspective.
 
I could imagine that if omnigroup was adding or tuning indexes in the database it might increase the size of the database though it might also improve performance. As you said, whatever the size is after compacting is probably the minimum size.
 
thankxx alot.......
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by whpalmer4 View Post
OmniFocus should do most of this for you automatically if you just make sure that your devices sync regularly, and you make a habit of syncing before making changes when switching from one device to another.

Quote:
Originally Posted by whpalmer4 View Post
The most effective way of tackling #2 is to sync all your devices, then on the Mac, unregister all of the clients (including the Mac) from the Show Clients display in the Sync preferences. Click the sync button, which will write out a fully compacted database to the server, then sync the other devices, making sure to choose to keep the sync database when asked.
Thank you! I did not know either one of these. The size OmniFocus.ofocus dropped from about 500 kb to about 60 kb.

I confess that I did not read the whole manual and that it is probably in there. I tend to dive in and then look around in the manual once I run into something I am interested in, and look around in forum posts for other items. I suppose I should skim through the manual.

Thank you.
 
 


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