Strange thing happened to me today. I discovered my main DT Pro database is a whopping 22GB – at least according to the OS.
Thing is, I know it’s not that big, but the Finder thinks it is. When I look within DT Pro it’s more like 132MB – which I verified through the restore backup window…
I tried to repair the database, but DT Pro tells me nothing is wrong.
Any ideas how/why my database is 22GB according to the Finder?
I’ve tried to optimize, no results.
I tried Scripts > Export > Backup Archive. Due to a database that size, my internal HD is practically full so that effort failed…
Before I move the file and attempt other repair issues, I thought I’d check and see if this is something known and how to fix it.
Select the database package in the Finder and choose “Show Package Contents” in the contextual menu. How many backup folders are inside the package? Finally, open the “Files” folder and sort the folder by size. Maybe there are some huge imported files.
The default number of internal backup folders is 3. That should be sufficient, even overkill, for most cases. So if you have more than that, try deleting the extras. Set the DT Preferences back to 3 for the number of internal backups.
It’s not a good idea to run out of disk space. Apple’s engineers recommend keeping 10 to 15% of the drive capacity free for Virtual Memory swap file space as well as space for other temporary files needed by the OS and applications.
If free disk space runs out, the OS can start overwriting existing data files, which is a Very Bad Thing.
I opened the package and discovered a file that had been imported into the database automatically using a folder script had ballooned from 17mb to 17GB. Another imported file went from a few MB to over 7GB.
I deleted the files from the package (I had already deleted them from the database within DT Pro). All seems to be fine now.
This whole incident now leads me to a thought and a question:
This seems like a bug. I had the script – the one that came with DT extras – attached to my downloads folder to import new files into my main DT database. Sometimes these files include DMGs and other things I download from the Internet. Obviously, DT Pro does not like to import disk images.
Is there anyway to edit said script so it only imports PDFs, TXT files, etc.?
I don’t attach a Folder Action script to my Download folder (which is the Desktop) because I download a lot of stuff that I don’t want to put into a database. Examples: applications, application updates, images to be processed in Aperture and so on.
Instead, I’ve created a folder with an attached Import script and save directly to it, or drag other stuff from the Desktop into it that’s destined for the database.
Note: As items Imported (rather than Indexed) into the database are copied to the database, duplicates are created. Periodically I’ll empty the folder to which the Folder Action script is attached.