MAXQDA

Best Practice for Database Location on Mac?

28.02.2022, 18:03

I am new to MaxQDA, recently installed on Mac running Monterey. I have read concerns about placing the database on iCloud storage with regard to performance and potential corruption. I can see potential corruption from an ACID database where incomplete cloud sync takes place out of order, but what is the concern with performance, assuming the local copy is completely cached?

More specifically, what is the best practice for storing the database? Virtually all of the local drive is mirrored to iCloud. Where should I put the local database? If I am storing the database locally, then backups to an iCloud folder become critically important. Where is the best place to store those? How to I enable regular backups to that location?

If this is discussed elsewhere, please forgive me and share the link.

Many thanks,
Marty

Version: MAXQDA 2022
System: Mac OS X 12.x (Monterey)
marty.scholes
 
Posts: 11
Joined: 27.02.2022, 16:44

Re: Best Practice for Database Location on Mac?

01.03.2022, 12:07

Dear Marty,

Thank you for posting here. In general, we strongly recommend to not save project files in folders that are synchronized with a cloud service. If the connection between project file and MAXQDA gets interrupted, this can lead to issues with the database structure of your file and it can lead to a restricted performance if MAXQDA can not directly reach your file.

So we recommend you either create a folder that is not synchronized with iCloud or you pause the synchronization while the file is opened. After you have finished working on your file, you can of course copy it to a folder that is synched with iCloud or you can start the synchronization again. Please only make sure to not open your file while it is synched.

As for the backups: you can of course choose a folder that is synched with iCloud for automatic backups. You can set the path for automatic backups created by MAXQDA in the general preferences via the gear in the right corner. Please note that we recommend to use the automatic backup function of MAXQDA as an addition to manual backups. You can read more about backups here in our online manual:
https://www.maxqda.com/help-mx22/screens-and-menus/backups

I hope this helps!

Kind regards on behalf of the MAXQDA support team,
Maren
MAXQDA support team
Maren_eng
 
Posts: 90
Joined: 27.11.2019, 11:44

Re: Best Practice for Database Location on Mac?

01.03.2022, 16:32

Maren,

Thank you for the reply and the information.

In general, we strongly recommend to not save project files in folders that are synchronized with a cloud service. If the connection between project file and MAXQDA gets interrupted, this can lead to issues with the database structure of your file and it can lead to a restricted performance if MAXQDA can not directly reach your file.

If I understand you, the sole concern with cloud-backed storage is local availability. Can I read into your response that as long as all of the data is available locally and never altered remotely, then cloud storage is safe from corruption and performance issues?

Thanks again,
Marty
marty.scholes
 
Posts: 11
Joined: 27.02.2022, 16:44

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