Why is my scheduled backup spending about 20 minutes searching for unused space? Should I reindex?
Thanks
Chris

Chris Caouette wrote:Why is my scheduled backup spending about 20 minutes searching for unused space? Should I reindex?

Chris, reindexing won't help. When QRecall captures new items, it tries to identify and reuse any wasted space in the archive. This obsolete space is created when you merge layers. Merging may result in records of files, directories, or individual blocks of data that the archive no longer needs to keep.

Following a merge, the next capture or compact action begins by cross-referencing every record used in the archive in order to determine isn't being used. If the archive is particularly large, complex, or access to the archive is slow (say, via a network), then this can take some time.

If the amount of time spent locating free space is becoming excessive, here are two solutions:

Merge less often. A merge is what causes records to be freed and triggers the search for free space during the next capture or compact action. If you haven't just merged, neither of those actions have anything to find. Set the schedule of your merge actions to run, say, once a week.

Turn off the the free space search for capture actions. Turn off the free space sweep by issuing the following command in the terminal (see Advanced QRecall Settings). Make sure you schedule a compact to occur at least once a week. The capture will skip looking for empty space, even after a merge, but the compact still perform its normal maintenance.

defaults write com.qrecall.client QRCaptureFreeSpaceSweep -boolean false

The second solution is particularly well suited for situations where you capture from a remote computer (say a laptop) to an archive on a desktop via a network. The laptop can capture quickly, and the desktop can schedule local compacts to keep the archive tidy and efficient.

Excellent thank you very much. It is nice to see such rapid response from a developer. Maybe having a skip free space search can become preference in a future update?
Thanks,
Chris

Chris Caouette wrote:Maybe having a skip free space search can become preference in a future update?

It's already on the to-do list.