The data that Sitebulb Desktop produces is written to hard disk. Over time, if you do lots of audits (or very big audits), this may start to take up a significant portion of the available space on your hard drive.
As such, you may wish to consider managing some of the Projects on your machine, in order to save space.
The first question to ask yourself is: 'Do I really need to keep all the audit data for every single audit I've ever done?'
In most cases, the honest answer will probably be 'no', which means you'll be able to save space simply by deleting Audits and Projects you no longer need.
Deleting Projects
Your Project list shows the data size of the Project, so you can easily scan down the list of Projects to find the biggest ones:
If you identify one that is taking up a lot of space, and you decide you no longer it, click into View Project then simply choose to Delete Project.
Keep in mind that this is irreversible, as the data will be literally wiped from your hard drive.
Deleting Audits
If you have been auditing a website repeatedly over a long period (e.g. for a retainer client), you may find that you have lots of old audits which you simply no longer need but you do not want to delete the entire Project, as the most recent audits are still important to keep.
Head over to the Project, and scroll down to view the historical audit records. The audit file size is also displayed here - along with the date each audit was completed - so you can quickly decide which ones you no longer need.
Simply hit the Delete button alongside each one, and confirm.
Deleting Imported, Paused, and Interrupted Audits
The file size is also visible on the table view for imported, paused, and interrupted Audits, so you may be able to save space by deleting Audits that you aren't even using. You'll find these audit under their relevant tabs
In particular, I find 'Paused Audits' is a place where forgotten Audits go to die, so you might find a bit of space saving by simply deleting those.
Changing the default save location for new Projects
Sitebulb is set up to save all Audit data to the same relative folder, on every machine. This default save location uses this directory:
Windows: C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Sitebulb
Mac: /Users/<USERNAME>/.local/share
If your main drive is becoming full and you are looking to save space, one option may be to save data to a different partitioned drive, or an external hard drive.
In order to do this, you need to adjust the 'global settings' that govern how Sitebulb runs by default for every audit.
Navigate to Global Settings
From the top navigation menu, choose the 'Settings' option.
Find the Data tab
From here, find the the 'Data' tab, which allows you to control where Sitebulb stores audit Project and Audit data on your computer.
Select a new directory
In order to change the default file location, simply click the blue Select Directory button. You are able to select a different folder on the same hard drive, a connected hard drive or an external hard drive.
Save
Once you have chosen the appropriate directory, hit Save.
Note that this does not move pre-existing Project and Audit data, but will become the new default location for all new Projects you add.
Warning: do NOT put it on a 'Smart Drive'
For example, DropBox, OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud, etc...
If you do this it might work initially, but eventually, it will lock your database and you will lose access to your data.
If you are looking to sync audit/project data so you can pick it up from a different location, we would suggest to do it is via the Advanced Setting option: Save export data to a custom folder, which needs to be configured per Project.
Moving existing Projects into a different storage folder
The option above allows you to change where Audit data is stored for new Projects. However, you may have a particularly large Project, which you do not wish to delete, that is already stored in the original default save location.
Navigate to the Project page
Find the Project you would like to move to a new location and navigate to the project page. Click the red Move Project Data button.
Choose a new Directory
The Move Project Data button will open an overlay window that allows you to choose a new directory for the Project data, such as a different partitioned drive or an external drive.
Move Project
This may take a few minutes, so do not move away from the page.
If you are moving a particularly large audit, it may be best to do this when you don't immediately need to use Sitebulb for another task, and can leave it moving the Project and come back to it later.
Once it has been moved, you will see a notice on the Project page for the new save location of this audit.
A byproduct of this process that is not particularly intuitive is that any new Audits you run within this Project will also save to the new location.
Mac Only: Restart Sitebulb
If you move a Project on the Mac, before you are able to open any of the Audits within that Project, you will need to restart Sitebulb. Your Mac will then ask for permission when you try to open one of the Audits:
