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How to disable Autosave in TextEdit?

I work a lot with TextEdit, and I realized that it had kept in ‘Containers’ all my writings for more than a year, 620 MB!


Three years ago, in this discussion: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8396738, leroydouglas proposed this Terminal command line, which seems to no longer work:


defaults write com.apple.TextEdit ApplePersistence -bool no


What solution? Thank you for your answers.


Mac mini, macOS 12.0

Posted on Dec 4, 2021 12:50 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 4, 2021 8:31 AM

doms66 wrote:

I work a lot with TextEdit, and I realized that it had kept in ‘Containers’ all my writings for more than a year, 620 MB!

Three years ago, in this discussion: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8396738, leroydouglas proposed this Terminal command line, which seems to no longer work:

defaults write com.apple.TextEdit ApplePersistence -bool no

What solution? Thank you for your answers.


Sorry your link does not seem to work for a look see at the reference...


3 years ago 3 operating system ago... no surprise there.



I would have to question the value of turning off Autosave in TextEdit —

to what end, or another way to say what do you gain by turning off this feature?


Local snapshots can be a life saver— and make it easier to revert to previous version:





TextEdit User Guide for Mac - Apple Support


.


5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 4, 2021 8:31 AM in response to doms66

doms66 wrote:

I work a lot with TextEdit, and I realized that it had kept in ‘Containers’ all my writings for more than a year, 620 MB!

Three years ago, in this discussion: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8396738, leroydouglas proposed this Terminal command line, which seems to no longer work:

defaults write com.apple.TextEdit ApplePersistence -bool no

What solution? Thank you for your answers.


Sorry your link does not seem to work for a look see at the reference...


3 years ago 3 operating system ago... no surprise there.



I would have to question the value of turning off Autosave in TextEdit —

to what end, or another way to say what do you gain by turning off this feature?


Local snapshots can be a life saver— and make it easier to revert to previous version:





TextEdit User Guide for Mac - Apple Support


.


Dec 4, 2021 9:26 AM in response to doms66

doms66 wrote:

Thank you for your answer.

Then I have a technical question: are these files kept in ‘Containers > AutoSave’ therefore an integral part of "Local snapshots"?

However, I do not necessarily want to keep May 2020 files on my computer ;-) … Up to 620 MB…


620MB is hardly nothing in size...(?) it takes a 1000MB to get to just 1 GB....


Open Textedit >File>Revert— and see how far it goes back...hard to believe it goes back to May 2020.



Local snapshots are only kept for 24-48 hours depending on available free storage on the machine.


Running a Time Machine backup clears snapshots:

Back up your Mac with Time Machine: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250



If you are choked for free storage then doing some major house cleaning to resolve storage issues if you are concerned over 620MB in TextEdit (?)


Empty your Trash — Delete files and folders on Mac - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/delete-files-and-folders-on-mac-mchlp1093/mac


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

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


See used and available storage space on your Mac

https://support.apple.com/guide/system-information/see-available-storage-space-syspf9b375b9/10.14/mac/10.15


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

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


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

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


Dec 4, 2021 9:47 AM in response to leroydouglas

In fact, I just found the explanation.


I securely keep a number of my writings in an encrypted .dmg archive. Looking at the activity of the folder 'Library/Containers/com.apple.TextEdit/Data/Library/Autosave Information/‘ with the ForkLift utility, I realize that this folder contains only the files concerned.


The reason: these .dmg archives do not support permanent version storage. That's why the different versions are in the indicated container, without ever being deleted!


Thank you anyway for your instructions!


How to disable Autosave in TextEdit?

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