[nunez]

What's an 'average' size for an OmniFocus database?

I'm in the initial collection phase, with around 300 actions in the system, and notice that the database is 3Mb. This seems a bit large to me, and would slow down sync times as well.

I have no attachments on these action -- just entered text.

What kind of file size can I expect after 3, 9 & 12 months of usage?

Cheers,
- Steve

[curt.clifton]

My database hangs out around 1MB with 154 projects and 2095 actions at the moment. Note that OF stores a list of changes, not just the current state of the data. This has two implications:

1. During routine use, syncing only has to move changes since the last sync. So syncs can be very fast most of the time. (They slow down when lots of changes have been made. There are also some reports of very slow syncs on the OF iPhone forum, but the new version of software in development seems to be sorting out those problems.)

2. During initial capture, the database size can grow to be much larger than it will be once OF has "consolidate" the changes. For example, four edits to a single action will result in four different change records. Once these are consolidated, you'll be back to just one record.

Cheers,

Curt

[Toadling]

In addition to Curt's points, I'd suggest checking if you have any stale sync clients. Go to your OmniFocus sync preferences and click the "Show Clients" button. Make sure all the machines listed are valid and have synced recently. Delete any registered machines that you don't sync anymore.

With no attachments, 3 MB sounds awful large to me. I have no attachments, 194 projects, and 1280 actions. My file size on the Mac is currently 188 KB.

-Dennis

[nunez]

Let me just make sure I've got the right file:

~/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus/OmniFocus.ofocus

Which is 3Mb.

Could this be because I'm using Bonjour sync, and this computer is the sync computer? I've struggled with WebDAV syncing on JungleDisk and so far haven't sorted out WebDAV syncing to iPhone.

The iPhone sync is painfully slow at the moment....

Regards,
- Steve

[whpalmer4]

That's the right file. The sync method doesn't affect the size of the file.

One thing that can take up some space is extensive notes in the actions. Another is a bunch of perspectives that need to save the ordering of the projects/actions.

What does the iPhone report on the Settings page for the size of your database (actions, projects, zip files)?

Why don't you do a Show Package Contents on the database file, sort by size, and report the size of the top 10 files? There will be one bigger one that has a filename starting with 0000 -- that's all the consolidated transactions. The other .zip files are either transactions or client files (the latter are small and relatively few in number).

My guess is that your database hasn't compacted recently, and due to a bug in the shipping iPhone app, it processes the unincorporated transactions in a very inefficient manner, which makes the sync seem quite slow. Getting the database to compact will help, if that is the case. Answers to my questions above will show if my hunch is correct.

[nunez]

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

What does the iPhone report on the Settings page for the size of your database (actions, projects, zip files)?

37 Projects, 388 actions stored in 691 zip files

Why don't you do a Show Package Contents on the database file, sort by size, and report the size of the top 10 files? There will be one bigger one that has a filename starting with 0000 -- that's all the consolidated transactions. The other .zip files are either transactions or client files (the latter are small and relatively few in number).

Interestingly, the files aren't that big. The consolidated transaction file is 53KB, followed by files of 49, 45, 45 KB, and all the rest 4KB

My guess is that your database hasn't compacted recently, and due to a bug in the shipping iPhone app, it processes the unincorporated transactions in a very inefficient manner, which makes the sync seem quite slow. Getting the database to compact will help, if that is the case. Answers to my questions above will show if my hunch is correct.

Any way to:

1. Initiate a compact operation
2. Get an updated iPhone client

?

Cheers,
- Steve

[whpalmer4]

Okay, that all sounds pretty reasonable. Here's what you should do to get a compaction to occur:

1. Launch OmniFocus on desktop and do a sync.
2. Launch OmniFocus on iPhone and do a sync.
3. Do something else for an hour.
4. Repeat 1 and 2.

If you don't have any other clients registered (see Dennis aka Toadling's post above), you should get a database compaction from the above.

Unfortunately, there's no way to get the new bits until they are ready for release -- Apple restricts developers to 100 test copies of an application, and they only allow clearing the list of recipients once per year (and each copy is assigned to a specific device). I think there are only 4 of us non-Omni alpha testers as a result of that (the rest are Omni employees). 3 of us have offered suggestions to you in this thread :-) My perception is that Ken is eager to get these bits out to the public just as soon as he can, judging from the very rapid turnaround I'm getting on the bugs I've reported. With a compacted database and your workflow in steady state, even with the old software you should see good performance with Bonjour syncs, I think.

By the way, what model iPhone do you have? I understand the new ones have quite a bit more processing power than the older ones.

[nunez]

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

Okay, that all sounds pretty reasonable. Here's what you should do to get a compaction to occur:

1. Launch OmniFocus on desktop and do a sync.
2. Launch OmniFocus on iPhone and do a sync.
3. Do something else for an hour.
4. Repeat 1 and 2.

If you don't have any other clients registered (see Dennis aka Toadling's post above), you should get a database compaction from the above.

By the way, what model iPhone do you have? I understand the new ones have quite a bit more processing power than the older ones.

That seemed to work. Down to 66KB now. Big difference.

I'm on a 3G, first generation (which I think is actually 2nd generation in total.).

Cheers,
- Steve

[niels]

You should also notice the number of zip files on your iPhone is dramatically reduced. If that number starts climbing, it's a good indication you haven't synced in a while & that will have an impact of size on disk.

One downside of the bonjour approach is OmniFocus can only sync when your phone is on the same network as your Mac. This can cause the time between syncs to increase much more, increasing file size & slowing down syncs. OmniFocus for iPhone 1.6 is now out & is dramatically faster for syncing, but using WebDav or MobileMe will allow you to sync more often when you are away from your Mac.

[nunez]

I've been considering the pros & cons of Bonjour. At the moment, working from home, I only have two devices to sync, and things are tending not to get too far out of sync (but then I'm still not done with the collection phase!).

Sync to iPhone is now much faster, but I notice a difference in the action count: the iPhone has one more action than the Mac!

Cheers,
- Steve