Can I delete these files?
I've been unable to copy my Moneydance file to a backup drive lately, hangs up and I always give up on it. This is on a Mac mini, OS X 10.12.5 (latest). I've finally found out why: over 6600 *.txn files in the safe/tiksync/out directory. I'm guessing they relate to SyncSpace, which I don't use. Two questions: If they are indeed related to SyncSpace, why are they being created if I don't have it enabled? And second, can I delete them without screwing anything up?
A further possibility is that they relate to online downloads. If so, why are they not deleted after they're confirmed?
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Support Staff 1 Posted by Sean Reilly on Jul 22, 2017 @ 08:23 PM
Hi David,
Those txn file are basically a list of (encrypted) changes to your Moneydance data. Together, they constitute the history of that data file. They do relate to syncing your Moneydance data, but not to SyncSpace. If you are running the most recent version of Moneydance 2017 then it is safe to delete any .txn file that is older than the safe/tiksync/trunk file. However, I would recommend not deleting those old files if at all possible.
When performing a backup, could you instead use the File->Export Backup menu or the automatic backup setting in the preferences? That will combine the txn files into a single file that should transfer (or be saved directly to a network folder) much more quickly than copying all of the smaller files.
Thanks!
Sean Reilly
Developer, The Infinite Kind
http://infinitekind.com
2 Posted by david.d on Jul 22, 2017 @ 08:38 PM
Thanks. I¹ve used the export before, but I had a different purpose here:
I¹d like to migrate my database back to my RAID box, where it used to live
until everything became too slow. Since then, I¹ve been running it on my
SSD, which is nice and fast, but it leaves me without real-time backup. So,
strictly speaking I wasn¹t exactly copying to a backup drive, but I didn¹t
want to complicate things.
My safe/tiksync/trunk file is dated today, so I¹m assuming it¹s safe to
delete the old ones, correct? What¹s the down side of deleting them? I
could easily keep the most recent month or two, if it makes a difference.
From: Sean Reilly <[email blocked]>
Reply-To: <[email blocked]>
Support Staff 3 Posted by Sean Reilly on Jul 22, 2017 @ 09:47 PM
The downside to deleting them is that your change history will no longer be available if you should need it in the future. The history can also be needed if you have syncing enabled and the syncing hasn't caught up with the latest changes. Although if the file is in the safe/tiksync/in folder then that should mean that it has already synced, so checking the date on the file compared to the trunk file and making sure it is in the "in" folder should be enough.
I'd also suggest that if your concerned about real-time backups, then the change history may be worth preserving as well. My own preference is to keep as much context data as possible, although I can see the potential problem with performance on a slower drive. Moneydance 2017 doesn't load txn files that it has already incorporated into the trunk (which is like a snapshot of data at the time the trunk was made), but simply listing all of the txn files may slow things down a bit.
Is the RAID box on a network share? If so, I'd recommend keeping your data on the local drive and running a backup to the RAID, either using Moneydance's built-in backup or using something like rsync to keep the RAID copy consistent with your local computer. If the RAID drive is local to your computer then I'd try loading it directly on the RAID and running Moneydance on it while keeping the txn file. Since 99% of them will be ignored it may not hurt, and you'll get to keep the extra history.
We have created a built-in txn log archiver/consolidater into Moneydance but it hasn't been enabled yet because I didn't think it would really affect loading times. I would really like to hear your experience of it though, especially once the initial copy has completed.
Thanks!
Sean
4 Posted by david.d on Jul 23, 2017 @ 12:01 AM
Interesting. I’ve been running on the SSD, with backups set to the RAID
(which as you suggest is on the network), and that works for manual exports.
It does not, however, appear to affect the automatic backup that occurs on
close. Is that correct? And if so, is there a way to change the
destination for those?
Also, I don’t have an “in” folder, just an “out”. Is there something that
should be creating those files? Or do files get moved from “in” to “out”
when they’ve been processed, with the “in” folder deleted when empty?
From: Sean Reilly <[email blocked]>
Reply-To: <[email blocked]>
5 Posted by david.d on Jul 23, 2017 @ 05:50 PM
I’ve taken the compromise position of removing all files prior to 2017,
keeping the current fiscal year change history. Will keep you posted.
From: Sean Reilly <[email blocked]>
Reply-To: <[email blocked]>
6 Posted by david.d on Aug 15, 2017 @ 11:22 PM
No issue since then. There may have been some issue with a failing disk drive on the NAS, possibly being masked by error correction. I've taken the opportunity to upgrade the NAS to larger drives, and have had no further problems, nor noticeable ill effects from having removed the transaction files.
So from an immediate point of view, I think you can consider the problem closed. I would, however, be aware of the limitations of even Unix filesystems in the face of very large numbers of individual small files, particularly when accessed over a network connection.
System closed this discussion on Nov 14, 2017 @ 11:30 PM.