Library>Containers>com.realmacsoftware

In my Library directory I got these three folders:

com.realmacsoftware.rapidweaver — 1.28 GB;
com.realmacsoftware.rapidweaver8 — 37.4 MB;
com.realmacsoftware.RWSharedPrefs — 66 KB.

I wonder whether I will need the first one, after I convert all my projects to RW 8? I am guessing that I will be free to delete it?

Also, in Library>Group Containers I have these folders:

com.realmacsoftware.rapidweaver — 39 KB;
P97H7FTHWN.com.realmacsoftware.rapidweaver — 445.6 MB;
P97H7FTHWN.com.realmacsoftware.rapidweaver7 — 107 KB;
P97H7FTHWN.com.realmacsoftware.rapidweaver8 — 74 bytes.

Can anyone give me an idea what are they? @dan, @LaPan, @simon

1 Like

there are likely 3 things eating up space:

  1. your stacks
  2. stranded caches
  3. ???

Let me detail each:

  1. 3rd party stacks
    your stacks are located in your Addons folder. the default location is inside the Container for the app – whichever version. some users have A LOT of stacks – but even the largest Stacks folder shouldn’t be much bigger than 300MB.

    Theme’s can eat up a lot of space too, but usually people don’t have quite so many installed.

    Even if you’ve relocated your Addons folder to a new location you may still have a copy in the default location. If so, you can safely remove the copy – but perhaps make sure you have a backup first – just in case you discover you needed something in there.

  2. stranded caches (i’m going to bet you’ll find a lot here)
    normally Stacks cleans up after itself. however if RW unexpectedly quits Stacks may leave its cache files in the caches folder. Stacks will even use those stranded caches to recover missing data if data corruption is discovered. but if all is well and you have not crashed recently and RapidWeaver isn’t currently running – these Caches folder should be empty. if it isn’t then you can safely delete the old caches.
    i saw one user recently, who (to my stunned disbelief) thought it was normal to Force Quit applications. this meant that nearly every cache file stacks had ever created was still hanging around “just in case”. Needless to say, his Caches folder was many GB large. :scream:

  3. ??? i have no idea what the folders that start with P97H7FTHWN are. Maybe someone from RW can explain that one. I’m pretty sure they have nothing to do with Stacks, which I know is not exactly helpful info – but it’s the one bit I know. :wink:

Isaiah

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Thanks, Isaiah. Your explanations are always helpful.

I decided to put all those folders in a “quarantine” area and see if any of them is being missed by RW. If not, then, after few days, I will delete them.

But still, I am curious what those folders whose names start with numbers are.

BTW, in case anybody needs an app that reports state of their Mac’s health, I found EtreCheck, which was originally created by one of the Apple Community Forum wizards to help diagnose and report problems people were asking about on their forum. This app is highly recommended on Apple’s Forum. It is very safe to use, because its sole role is reporting, not repairing or changing anything in a system.

Hey @Rovertek

I’ll try and give you a rough idea what these are for

In Library>Containers (Accessible from a single version of RW)

com.realmacsoftware.rapidweaver — 1.28 GB; (RW7 addons / preferences)
com.realmacsoftware.rapidweaver8 — 37.4 MB; (RW8 preferences)
com.realmacsoftware.RWSharedPrefs — 66 KB. (I’m unsure if this is still used)

In Library>Group Containers (Accessible from different versions of RW)

com.realmacsoftware.rapidweaver — 39 KB; (Pretty sure this is unused - might be created by the OS)
P97H7FTHWN.com.realmacsoftware.rapidweaver — 445.6 MB; (New RW addons location, RW8+)
P97H7FTHWN.com.realmacsoftware.rapidweaver7 — 107 KB; (RW7 preferences)
P97H7FTHWN.com.realmacsoftware.rapidweaver8 — 74 bytes.(RW8 preferences)

Apple say that group containers should start with the company ID, ie P97H7FTHWN which is our company ID.

Cheers
Tom

5 Likes

Thanks, Tom, this makes my “cleaning chores” easier.

As I understand your explanation, I can delete

com.realmacsoftware.rapidweaver* — 1.28 GB; (RW7 addons / preferences)

…as soon as I successfully convert all my projects to RW8? Same goes for…

P97H7FTHWN.com.realmacsoftware.rapidweaver7 — 107 KB; (RW7 preferences)

Yeah you should be safe to remove them - RW8 won’t use them. However, I’d suggest making a backup before deleting anything just to be sure.

We do try and copy all addons / stacks across but in the event something didn’t copy correctly, it’s nice to have a backup to go back to.

Cheers

1 Like

Sure thing. I got multiple backups. :grinning:

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