Notes "On My Mac" large NoteStore.sqlite-wal

Barney-15E wrote:

The -wal file is the Write Ahead Log. It should not grow like that. It may be that it isn't getting overwritten, but added to.

The .sqlite file is where your data is stored. The app accesses the WAL while active, but once it is quit, both the -wal and -shm are not accessed.

Backup all of them by making copies somewhere and delete the -wal and -shm files. Open Notes and see what happens.

Insightful post Barney-15E

I see the -shm files are tmpfs files acting as normal directories, except they are entirely stored in RAM...

The -wal file is the Write Ahead Log. It should not grow like that. It may be that it isn't getting overwritten, but added to.

The .sqlite file is where your data is stored. The app accesses the WAL while active, but once it is quit, both the -wal and -shm are not accessed.

Backup all of them by making copies somewhere and delete the -wal and -shm files. Open Notes and see what happens.

I have not dug into this topic however, I would be a little dubious of deleting this database.

some more round about this topic ref: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8137847

Its not huge gain here—your 4.4GB of media

but if you have storage issues there may be safer places to retrieve 4.4GB

Provide a quick breakdown by folder in descending order of used GB , from the Terminal.app , copy & paste:

 sudo ** -gs /Users/YourUserNameHere/* | sort -k 1nr

(please note: your psswd will not echo, type it in anyway, to proceed Enter/Return key)

==================================================================

How to free up storage space on your Mac - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206996

User tip: "Other and What Can I Do About It ?"

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5142

Try something likeOmniDiskSweeper for a GUI to get a good look at itemized file size and location:

OmniDiskSweeper http://www.omnigroup.com/more

Others for example—

Disk Inventory X: http://www.derlien.com/ (takes forever to load up.)

Grand Perspective: http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/

Or alternatively from the Terminal.app, more detail copy and paste the command line:

File size, and finding missing GB— list the items in the home folder with the sizes, including invisible items.

sudo ** -h -d 1 ~/

File size, and finding missing GB —will list the items in root with the sizes, including invisible items.

sudo ** -h -d 1 /


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Yes. Everything short of "optimized" files are stored both locally and on iCloud. I don't believe there is any way to not store all Notes, Reminders, Calendar events, etc. only on iCloud. Without a local copy, you wouldn't be able to work offline.

Yes, but I don't know what that pattern is.

Databases store blocks of information in "pages." The -shm and -wal files index those pages. They should not grow larger than the database itself, and should be much smaller.

The information about them on the Sqlite3 documentation states that the index should be overwritten, but it isn't ever cleared. It appears that the page index isn't being overwritten, but added to. Perhaps it will work correctly now.

If you moved the .sqlite file, then you moved all of your notes. As I explained before, the .sqlite file is the data. The other two files are just indexes to make access quicker.

Move the .sqlite file back and then open notes. It will have created a new version, so you'll have to overwrite that file.