TextEdit rapidly filling up small .dmg files

[McMack]

[TL;DR version: TextEdit now makes copies of itself that rapidly fill up 10MB .dmg files that I'm accustomed to syncing across machines. I'm at my wits' end.]

I'm not a happy upgrader right now, solely due to one issue that could be make or break for me and Lion.

I keep a number of small text files in a 10MB .dmg file that I sync to Dropbox across all my machines.

The problem now is that TextEdit's autosave and versions rapidly fills up the 10MB, and then I get a message saying it's out of disk space.

After a day of trial and mostly error, I've discovered that after just one minute of typing in a 400kb text file, the entire 10MB disk space is filled up! I created these .dmg files so small never dreaming they'd ever be outgrown by something so puny as a .txt file. But here I am, trapped in Lion's hall of reflecting mirrors.

None of the partial workarounds that a day of Googling have led me to address this specific problem.

I'm aware of my two most immediate solutions: either embiggen the .dmg files, or use another text editor that doesn't have the autosave/versions 'feature'.

But I have two questions:

• has anybody successfully got around this exact kind of problem yet and continued using TextEdit, or if not---
• if this is the new reality, just how many versions of itself does the .txt file spawn? and what size of .dmg file should I be looking to create to contain just one (!) of them?

 

[mrkgoo]

I found this interesting.

That's certainly large for a text file.

Is there any sign that the size is blossoming? I mean, the text file itself doesn't increase, right?

Versions are only supposed to save once per hour, and autosave is supposed to only work when you're not active, and if you are, only once every 5 minutes.

 

[mrapplegate]

Did you try locking the file?

 

[mrkgoo]

Did you try locking the file?

Apparently the issue is that autosave and versions is creating enough extra saves that it takes up too much room on the dmgs while he is working. Locking the file will prevent him from editing the file.

 

[mrapplegate]

Apparently the issue is that autosave and versions is creating enough extra saves that it takes up too much room on the dmgs while he is working. Locking the file will prevent him from editing the file.

Good point which totally escaped me. He can then only duplicate it or unlock.

 

[Infrared]

Apparently the issue is that autosave and versions is creating enough extra saves that it takes up too much room on the dmgs while he is working. Locking the file will prevent him from editing the file.

I'm wondering what's going to happen with sparse disk image bundles.

 

[McMack]

Thanks all for the responses. I just had another little play around with the .dmg, which shows 6MB free space to begin with. (I also store my own snapshot backups of the master file in a zipped folder on the .dmg, which takes up about 3MB. I've been happily operating this particular setup for two years now. Until the past few days..)

Again within a minute of working on the document I had the message saying "document could not be saved because the disk is full", and the disk space is down from 6MB to a few hundred kb.

Closed it, reopened it, and the free space was free again---the full 6MB. Started typing again, same result: disk soon full, a few hundred kb free.

Is it me or Lion? I need to know!

Is there any sign that the size is blossoming? I mean, the text file itself doesn't increase, right?

Versions are only supposed to save once per hour, and autosave is supposed to only work when you're not active, and if you are, only once every 5 minutes.

The .txt file in question is a 50,000-word file---not a typical text file, granted, but I would still expect to be able to store it on a 10MB .dmg without any complications.

Its overall size remains stable and only increases by the hundred or so words that it takes to fill up the whole 10MB .dmg file!

I don't know whether it's autosave or versioning that's causing this issue, or both in deadly combination.

 

[mrkgoo]

Thanks all for the responses. I just had another little play around with the .dmg, which shows 6MB free space to begin with. (I also store my own snapshot backups of the master file in a zipped folder on the .dmg, which takes up about 3MB. I've been happily operating this particular setup for two years now. Until the past few days..)

Again within a minute of working on the document I had the message saying "document could not be saved because the disk is full", and the disk space is down from 6MB to a few hundred kb.

Closed it, reopened it, and the free space was free again---the full 6MB. Started typing again, same result: disk soon full, a few hundred kb free.

Is it me or Lion? I need to know!



The .txt file in question is a 50,000-word file---not a typical text file, granted, but I would still expect to be able to store it on a 10MB .dmg without any complications.

Its overall size remains stable and only increases by the hundred or so words that it takes to fill up the whole 10MB .dmg file!

I don't know whether it's autosave or versioning that's causing this issue, or both in deadly combination.

sounds like to me an autosave thing.

My understanding is that autosave tracks changes while you work. This is taking up all the work space (guessing that autosave wasn't built for 10MB drives !). Then when you close it, a 'version' is stamped, and the space used for autosave is recovered.

Versions is basically like old-school saving, duplicates are kind of save-as, and autosave is a working-in-progress tool.

Maybe auto save requires a slightly larger swaps ace to work? Trying a larger dmg might do the trick to allow you to work longer, and saving a version recovers that space when you make one. Keep in mind a version is supposedly stamped every hour.

If correctly understand how it works, and I admit that I may not, then maybe your solution is to either find a non-autosaving app, or change the way you make these files - for example, don't use dmgs.