I am using Directory Opus 12 from past more than a year now.
When I backed up the configuration using Settings - Backup and Restore - Backup Configuration - All four boxes checked as shown
the size of the .ocb file on 24-Jul-2020 was 35.9 MB and the size when I used the backup today was 4.72 MB (used it twice over last two days and same size).
I am not sure if I am missing something or has the program changed to compress the .ocb file or something. I do not want to lose my configuration as I have done lots of changes over the months almost 9x difference in size has drawn my attention.
Instead of guessing, just rename the two .ocb files to .zip, go inside them, then use Edit > Calculate Folder Sizes. You'll then be able to see which folder is larger in one than the other, and can drill down from there to find the larger files.
You won the bet. It is indeed Collections. The file Find Results.col in previous backup is 267 MB and it is 1.24 KB in the latest backup.
I never knew or thought that the collection results which are dynamic and will almost definitely change over time are stored in configuration backup. I can understand that the collection definition is stored.
Is there any way to exclude collection results from the configuration export. Collection definition is fine.
I am not sure why the results are included as part of configuration and if there is some logic for that, I will appreciate if you can let me know that too.
I'm not sure what you mean by collection definitions, unless we're talking about Windows Search queries.
The definition of a normal collection is the list of files within it. The only other thing is the name, which isn't worth backing up on its own as it would just be an empty list.
You can turn off collections in the backup via the Backup miscellaneous data checkbox, although this also turns off some other things as well. From the manual:
Backup miscellaneous data will backup data that, while not forming part of your configuration as such, may still be important - things like your File Collections, Libraries and Flickr photoset information for example.
You could also delete the collections folder from inside the archive after doing the backup, if you need something more granular.
But how many Opus configuration backups are you keeping for this to really matter? 30 MB is a tiny amount of space.
As you mentioned, it is not the space but I was trying to understand the working and the logic behind it. 30 MB is not an issue and I do not have any qualms about it. By the way, I can now use the newly gained knowledge to delete a specific folder or file from the ocb if it does not matter during the restore to make the file smaller (e.g. I can mail it to myself as email programs restrict attachment sizes).
When I say Collection Definition, I mean the query which makes the Collection.
e.g. In Find Results, it is the search criteria for Find which is important for saving and not the results as they will change if I run the same find with the same search criteria after few weeks or months as the files would have changed by then.
I want to explore Collections in more detailed way and use it to my benefit. I will go through the manual.
I will also appreciate if you can point to some video tutorial on how to use Collections more effectively.
