Database Archive Backup Issue

DEVONthink
1

I’m running Sonoma 15.6.1 and DT 4.1.1. I tried creating a backup using File > Export > Database Archive and DT took over an hour to create the zip file which I can’t open using iZip because it is too large, apparently. The database is 140Gb in size and the zip file is 117Gb, not a substantial amount of difference in the larger scheme of things.

My takeaway here is that there should be some language in the manual to the effect that backing up databases larger than a certain size should not be done with File > Export > Database Archive.

I’m pretty sure that I can do a conventional backup (not a zipped one) in less time than it takes DT to do a zipped backup. A DT zipped backup of this size is useless unless someone knows of an archiving program that can open files of this size.

Am I wrong here?

2
  1. A ~20% compression is not trivial.
  2. Your database is uncommonly large and logically would take longer to compress than smaller ones. There is no universal “takes too long” on the topic.
  3. You should make sure you have sufficient disk space to decompress the file.
  4. You could try an application like The Unarchiver.
3

Bluefrog:

O.K., but is an addition to the entry in the manual going to be considered?

4

The documentation is mine and I will consider it.

5

Bluefrog:

Thank you for considering my idea. Since I had never tried this feature of DT, I wasn’t prepared for what occurred. Yes, I totally understand that the larger the database, the longer it takes to export it. I wasn’t prepared for the length of time it took, though, and thought that something was wrong. Some wording along the lines of the larger the database you are exporting, the longer it will take to complete would be helpful. You might consider a phrase that warns it could an hour or more to export large databases. I’m not going to use this feature - I’ll just copy and paste from the Databases volume to an external hard drive. That way, if I want to quit DT, I can do so.

6

Not surprisingly, the compression step does not eat away at your time with a conventional backup. And whether a 20% size reduction is good or not depends mostly on the kind of documents you’re storing. If most of them are JPGs or PNGs, you can’t expect much in terms of compression of these already compressed data. If they are text files (MD, HTML, formatted notes, RTF), compression should deliver considerable size reductions.

1 Like
7

You’re welcome!

Why not just drag and drop? This is a Mac, after all :wink:

8

I meant drag and drop. Used the wrong words.

9

No worries! Many Windows expats are used to copy and paste in the file system. You’re not the first to mention it and technically it works. Though I worked on PCs for a long time (and keep a laptop for rare support needs), drag and drop on a Mac has always felt more elegant and fluid to me.