Basecamp 4.6.2 Backups and old versions of AllData

Former Member over 9 years ago

When I look at my Database location it shows three sub-folders below the "Database" folder4.4_old, 4.5 & 4.6 the folder 4.4_old is only 238 bytes in size, the folder 4.5 is 107 MB in size and the folder 4.6 is 105 MB in size. When I do a backup the total backup size is about 78 MB in size. I read else where in the forum that the previous versions of the Database are not required any longer, which makes me wonder why they are getting backed up each time. As a test I restored the backup that contains all of the old databases to a new location and checked the count of stored objects which was 6060, I then closed Basecamp and deleted the 4.4_old & 4.5 folders, reopened Basecamp and verified that there were still 6060 total objects in the database, which there was. Basecamp now appears to load and display a bit quicker (perhaps my imagination) but the backup time is now much faster (not my imagination) and it is now about 38 mb in size.
I just wanted to verify that I do not need the old folders (I probably know the answer to this already) and to ask why the old folders are still there and also why they are being backed up if they are not needed?

0 SUSSAMB over 9 years ago

Assuming you don't need them then delete them.

BaseCamp allows multiple databases so backs the lot up because, unlike you, it doesn't know you don't need them ;)

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

Yes I realize that Basecamp allows multiple databases, but not in the same location and not with different version numbers that can be selected by the user, if I delete the 4.6 folder (in a test location) Basecamp will copy all the data from the 4.5 folder to a new 4.6 folder and leave the 4.5 folder as is, which is now no longer accessible to the program and is included in the backup. I understand the need to make a backup copy in case something goes wrong (I spent 15 years as a corporate IT senior support person), but why continue to back-it up for an indefinite period of time, perhaps it would get deleted if a 4.7 version of Basecamp was released? Yes I am going to delete the 4.5 folder, after I make a copy in a separate location that I can delete at a later date if need be and that will not be backed up every time I backup my active Basecamp data!

0 SUSSAMB over 9 years ago

That's because 4.6 is the current BaseCamp version so that database will be recreated if you delete it. You can though delete any other data folder.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

Assuming you don't need them then delete them.

The problem with that idea is that you will never know that you need them until something goes horribly wrong with BC! There have been quite a number of posts of folks that have had total data loss due to unknown circumstances and the only way they got most or all of there data back was by going to the previous version's database. If you make regular backups of your collection this is not an issue, but some people don't do that.