My database has trebled in size suddenly!

[White Lotus]

Thanks to those who helped me with questions to set up my donor database in FP5.5. It's been ticking along nicely and slowly grew from 1MB to 1.5MB over 3-4 months.

But this month, the file size jumped to 4.2 MB! I haven't added much, a handful of new records and a small true/false field. No new scripts. I have compared the current version to my last backup a month ago and can't see any noticeable changes, apart from the size.

Can anyone suggest a reason why this has happened? And better yet, how I can reverse it? I used to update my distant workmate by e-mail but the file has become very slow to mail over a 56k modem. I use a Mac G4 running OSX 10.1.3 but I've been running on OSX (& updates) for over 6 months now.

[andygaunt]

Hi,

As with most items on a computer (like your hard drive, things get fragmented and you end up with blank spaces).

These can cause your filemaker file size to show itself as incorrect (or greater than what it really is).

What you can do is choose save a copy as (and then under the type change copy of current file to compressed copy).

this does not compress the file like stuffit or winzip, but looks through your database and removes any white, or unused space thus reducing the file size.

Try this.