Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

How do I delete old file versions? And how does versions work?

K

KyleGP

macrumors member
Original poster
May 3, 2011
59
0
Hi there,
I've tried to find an answer to no avail.

Versions is an awesome feature, but I'm concerned about hard drive space.

Where are previous versions of things stored and more importantly, if you want to delete old versions you will never need, how do you do so to clear out disk space?

Lets say I have a document thats up to date but I wont ever need all the old versions of it. How do I delete those old versions or how do I delete only a few of them?

Does anyone also know where version files are stored and is there also a way to tweak how versions works? Eg. have it delete old versions after a certain time or something.

Versions is great, but I want to get inside it incase I need to make such changes to maximize hard disk space. I mean if it's duplicating everything, that could chew space massively.

Thanks all!
 
I actually don't know where they're located and stored, but as far as I'm concerned, most documents don't take up much space at all really, at least not to the point it would make a significant difference on my hard drive. But that's just me, I don't know if you or others work with really large documents.
 
It doesn't duplicate anything, it saves delta changes only. If you use Time Machine, they are on that drive.
 
So what if you did a *****-tone of document editing and whatnot but you didn't have a need for all those other versions? It's just a waste of space...
 
KyleGP said:
So what if you did a *****-tone of document editing and whatnot but you didn't have a need for all those other versions? It's just a waste of space...
Click to expand...

You can lock a document if you don't want versions saved for it. Only the changes are saved. The file size is minimal.
 
In the Ars Technica review it says the system deletes old versions at some point. Also can't you enter versions and delete one?

Like other says, it's just delta changes. If an image is 5 mb in one version, it is not another 5 mb in the next version if the image doesn't change.
 
Branskins said:
In the Ars Technica review it says the system deletes old versions at some point. Also can't you enter versions and delete one?

Like other says, it's just delta changes. If an image is 5 mb in one version, it is not another 5 mb in the next version if the image doesn't change.
Click to expand...
Nope you can't delete them. Correct.
 
The Versions changes aren't really going clog up your drive unless you're working on literally tens of thousands of documents, adding huge amounts of changes to each.
 
If it works anything like Time Machine, you can just go "back in time" and delete a previous "copy".

Although I don't know if that paradigm applies to Versions. My impression is that Time Machine backs up entire files but only if the file has changed, whereas Versions doesn't save entire files but instead saves only the changes within files as delta updates...

I guess the moral of the story is, we need some clarification on how this works...


=|
 
theNEOone said:
If it works anything like Time Machine, you can just go "back in time" and delete a previous "copy".

Although I don't know if that paradigm applies to Versions. My impression is that Time Machine backs up entire files but only if the file has changed, whereas Versions doesn't save entire files but instead saves only the changes within files as delta updates...

I guess the moral of the story is, we need some clarification on how this works...


=|
Click to expand...
You can't delete them. Not much explanation needed, you said it well enough.
 
how to delete old versions

You can delete old versions. Browse to the version you want to delete, then click the little arrow in the title bar (while still in the "space vortex" view) and click "Delete this version".

KYoGc.png
 

Attachments

  • delete_version.png
    delete_version.png
    94.3 KB · Views: 262
Versions info and how to delete old versions

KyleGP said:
Hi there,
I've tried to find an answer to no avail.

Versions is an awesome feature, but I'm concerned about hard drive space.

Where are previous versions of things stored and more importantly, if you want to delete old versions you will never need, how do you do so to clear out disk space?
...
Click to expand...
Most of the information you want is in an Apple Knowledge Base Document. It tells you how long versions are kept for and how to restore particular version and locked documents... What it doesn't tell you is how to remove all the old versions.

The following is correct, but missing an important bit of information:
Beetle86 said:
You can delete old versions. Browse to the version you want to delete, then click the little arrow in the title bar (while still in the "space vortex" view) and click "Delete this version".

Image
Click to expand...

If you hold down the Option key then "Delete This Version" will change to "Delete Old Versions..." and all you to clear out all the old versions.
 
Bear said:
Most of the information you want is in an Apple Knowledge Base Document. It tells you how long versions are kept for and how to restore particular version and locked documents... What it doesn't tell you is how to remove all the old versions.

The following is correct, but missing an important bit of information:

If you hold down the Option key then "Delete This Version" will change to "Delete Old Versions..." and all you to clear out all the old versions.
Click to expand...

That is so utterly unintuitive. Goodness knows how many copies of countless documents are cluttering up the hard disc / SSD...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back