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Managing file space for your Projects on Sitebulb Desktop

Updated today

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.

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.

Navigating to Global Settings

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.

project and audit data directory

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.

changing the project data directory

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.

moving project data sitebulb

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 data overlay window

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.

new-location-for-project-audit-data

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:

Macs are shit

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