How to disable Versions completely

It does not, except on a small file, so it's not going to eat up lots of space. It may take some extra space for a while, but as the copies are automatically "thinned" after 24 hours, the exra space will be minimal.

Wrong. Files are not thinned after 24 hours. You're confusing Versions with something else (god knows what, resume, Tm localbackups? autosaves? Thesre are different things.).

Go look at the directory. The proof is in the pudding.

As Etresoft says, that's not a reliable solution

On the contrary, neither you nor he have made a single point about why its not reliable. But please, go ahead (and I mean one based on facts, please), do tell...

softwater wrote:

Your replies indicate clearly that you don't know what you're talking about, nor do you have an answer to the OP's question.

The original poster solved the problem last month by using an older version of OmniGraffle.

Your concern seems to be privacy. You should be using File Vault or an encrypted disk image instead. Either one would be a much better solution than hacking up the internals of the Versions architecture.

As I said earlier, etresoft, that's your philosophical choice.

There is no architectural reason not to delete a file indexed in Sqlite database, and nor can this cause any harm to your system. If you want to get a SQLite expert in here to prove me wrong, go ahead. I'd be genuinely happy to listen and learn.

Now really, it's midnight here in Thailand, and I'll have to leave you to it...(don't blow out the candle, it's dark outside).

softwater wrote:

It does not, except on a small file, so it's not going to eat up lots of space. It may take some extra space for a while, but as the copies are automatically "thinned" after 24 hours, the exra space will be minimal.

Wrong. Files are not thinned after 24 hours.

Kindly read Apple's document and/or the ARS review. As posted earlier:

From the Versions section of the same article:

"OS X Lion saves only the information that has changed since the last version, making efficient use of space on your hard drive. OS X Lion manages the version history of a document, keeping hourly versions for a day, daily versions for a month, and weekly versions for all previous months."

(emphasis added)

That's what I see now, and saw during beta testing.

If that's not happening on your system, I can think of a couple of possible causes:

• Whatever changes you've made to the internals have damaged/corrupted them, so OSX can't do the deletions.
• Some other problem is preventing it. If so, file a bug report (see Reporting a Problem to Apple)

I think the best argument will be concerns over privacy. All those office documents people fished through to find deleted information. You would have thought Apple would have been aware of this old problem. Seems like they were in a rush for novelty.

Robert

rccharles wrote:

I think the best argument will be concerns over privacy. All those office documents people fished through to find deleted information. You would have thought Apple would have been aware of this old problem. Seems like they were in a rush for novelty.

File Vault 2?

It may take some extra space for a while, but as the copies are automatically "thinned" after 24 hours, the exra space will be minimal. [Emphasis added].

As I said this is wrong, and you provided the evidence yourself:

keeping...daily versions for a month, and weekly versions for all previous months."

Now, really, gentlemen, you're blowing bubbles here. Some people may not want those monthly and all previous monthly versions hanging around for whatever reason. That's their choice. It's their computer, their data.

This thread asked how to disable Versions, not for people's opinions on whether they should do it. The tutorial I linked to provides a way of doing that if you want to do it. If you follow the tutorial and do what it says, no ghosts are going to come out from under the bed to scare you. To suggest otherwise without citing any technical knowledge is just peddling fear and ignorance.

Yes, the original poster asked how to disable Versions. Your tutorial does not disable Versions, it merely corrupts the data store. It is impossible to disable Versions. It is part of the operating system. One could delete all Versions by removing the .DocumentRevisions-V100 and that would be fairly safe because it would delete both the versions and the database.

softwater wrote:

It may take some extra space for a while, but as the copies are automatically "thinned" after 24 hours, the exra space will be minimal. [Emphasis added].

As I said this is wrong, and you provided the evidence yourself:

keeping...daily versions for a month, and weekly versions for all previous months."

I see. You're one of those who just can't admit to having been wrong. I'm getting a little tired of having to quote you back to yourself. What you said was: "Wrong. Files are not thinned after 24 hours." They are (or, more accurately, only the changes are kept, and are thinned after 24 hours). But you won't admit that; instead, you're trying to change the subject to the weekly and monthly "versions" (containing only the changed "chunks").

Now, really, gentlemen, you're blowing bubbles here.

On the contrary; it's you who are trying to blow smoke. Nobody's fooled.

One could delete all Versions by removing the .DocumentRevisions-V100 and that would be fairly safe because it would delete both the versions and the database.

Excuse me for jumping in here, but I'm interested in knowing how to remove that invisible folder since you say it would be safe to do?

babowa wrote:

Excuse me for jumping in here, but I'm interested in knowing how to remove that invisible folder since you say it would be safe to do?

I said it was "fairly safe"... in a fraught-with-peril kind-of-way. On a USB drive I was able to delete it, recover, and get it re-created. TextEdit was actually less resiliant than I would have expected. I had to unmount the drive and remount it. I would not recommend deleteing ".Document-Revisions-V100" if you value your data.

Pity. It sounded good and I was hopeful for about as long as it took for me to read your answer. Back to trying to ignore it then.

You seem intent on flaming and playing word games rather than dealing with issues of substance. Here's what's known:

FACT: Versions keeps full copies of files, some for weeks, some for months.

FACT: you can delete files you don't want kept once you gain permission to the DocumentRevisions-V100 folder.

FACT: there is no known issue caused by doing so.

The rest is just irrelevant posturing.

softwater wrote:

. . .

FACT: Versions keeps full copies of files, some for weeks, some for months.

CORRECTION: No, it does not keep full copies of files. It keeps ony the changed "chunks" and deletes all but one per day after 24 hours (per http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4753?viewlocale=en_US).

FACT: You said "Wrong. Files are not thinned after 24 hours."

CORRECTION: The changed "chunks" are thinned after 24 hours (per http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4753?viewlocale=en_US).

FACT: you can delete files you don't want kept once you gain permission to the DocumentRevisions-V100 folder.

CORRECTION: It's much easier and safer to simply delete any versions you don't want via the Versions browser.

FACT: there is no known issue caused by doing so.

CORRECTION: OSX often doesn't respond well to having things modified in ways other than those provided by OSX, and yes, some folks have reported problems after doing that.

The rest is just irrelevant posturing.

Sounds like your repeated claims of false "FACTS" that are anything but. As posted, the actual facts are detailed in http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4753?viewlocale=en_US

As posted earlier, if you're getting different results, that you can actually document, file a bug report with Apple, as there's clearly something wrong with your system, quite possibly the result of modifications made in other than the ways provided.

Since you're purely defensive and reacting, not considering what's actually being written, I'm done correcting your misunderstandings, and having to quote your own words back to you, so have unsubscribed to this thread. You seem to be one of those who must have the last word, so by all means, rant on.

I do not like that new versions are created and saved without my say-so. I do not like that I am not asked to save/discard changes upon quitting.

In short, the 248 great new features provide me little reason to upgrade but the 249th and 250th features are deal-breakers. Until they can be turned off I will not use Lion.

It's not just Apple. The general trend for many years has been a “dumbing down” of all kinds of products. (Don't get me started about "Nanny cars".)

It is sad to see this control being removed from Mac users. Even more disturbing is this kindergarten mentality cannot be disabled or turned off for those with an IQ greater than 70.

I have gone back to Snow Leopard and very happy that I did. When these issues are corrected, or there are third-party apps to to correct I will try again. Fortunately I made good backups prior to Lion.

My first Mac OS Was 1.1 back in 1984. I always enjoy each upgrade.

The only time I skipped an upgrade was from OS 9 to 10.2. (I skipped 10.0 and 10.1)

Sad to report, I have now gone back to 10.6.8. (Snow Leopard)

In the Windows world, which I am sadly forced to use occasionally, I wisely skipped Vista, and went from Windows XP to Windows 7.

I was able to get over most of the technical problems with Lion. I felt that the interface was “dumbed down” and harder to use and missing some features (Bounce was removed from mail).