# Limit how many backups are kept?

**URL:** <https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/limit-how-many-backups-are-kept/8784>\
**Category:** Hookmark Feature Requests\
**Created:** [January 25, 2025, 1:25pm UTC](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/limit-how-many-backups-are-kept/8784 "2025-01-25T13:25:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![arthurwerry](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@arthurwerry](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/u/arthurwerry)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 1:25pm UTC](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/limit-how-many-backups-are-kept/8784/1 "2025-01-25T13:25:43Z")

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In setting up a new computer I noticed that Hookmark had created 60 gb of backups. Is there a way to limit this to, say the most recent two weeks of backups?

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**Author:** ![bchend](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/dbc845/32.png) [@bchend](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/u/bchend)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 6:00pm UTC](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/limit-how-many-backups-are-kept/8784/2 "2025-01-25T18:00:08Z")

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Sorry we don’t have a setting for the most recent backups.

Butyou can run the following command inTerminal.app to limit the number of backups of Hookmark’s database:

defaults write com.cogsciapps.hook database.backup.limit n

Thank you

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**Author:** ![martinewski](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/user_avatar/discourse.hookproductivity.com/martinewski/32/1309_2.png) [@martinewski](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/u/martinewski)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2025, 7:24pm UTC](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/limit-how-many-backups-are-kept/8784/3 "2025-01-30T19:24:36Z")

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Just adding my 2 cents, in case someone else needs it: I don’t want a certain number of backups, for I don’t control how many backups Hookmark does (or will do in the future) in a day/week/month. I use Hazel to delete backups based on their last modified date. The backups are in ~/Library/Application Support/com.cogsciapps.hook

 ![CleanShot 2025-01-30 at 16.22.04](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/uploads/default/original/2X/7/70adba8f807b4ffcf6f891d0bbdf99e71f5d486d.png)

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**Author:** ![AutonomyGaps](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@AutonomyGaps](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/u/AutonomyGaps)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2026, 9:15am UTC](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/limit-how-many-backups-are-kept/8784/4 "2026-01-27T09:15:04Z")

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Thanks for this Hazel rule! I’d forgotten about the problem, and then I just discovered that I have 6 GB of backups! There has to be a better way!

@LucB Any way of building limits in?

 ![How to use Hookmarks-1769504366851](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/uploads/default/original/2X/6/6f9fec234f611fe915c8b60d5c903ea006612bbf.webp)

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**Author:** ![AutonomyGaps](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@AutonomyGaps](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/u/AutonomyGaps)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2026, 9:22am UTC](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/limit-how-many-backups-are-kept/8784/5 "2026-01-27T09:22:20Z")

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For example, wouldn’t it be possible to have a setting or a startup question that corresponds to this:

`defaults write com.cogsciapps.hook database.backup.limit 5` (or some other default)

Seems simple, and all those 100+MB backups seems like a lot of cruft.

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**Author:** ![yann](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/y/bc79bd/32.png) [@yann](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/u/yann)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 4:48pm UTC](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/limit-how-many-backups-are-kept/8784/6 "2026-02-25T16:48:23Z")

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Isn’t that exactly what [that](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/limit-how-many-backups-are-kept/8784/2) does?

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**Author:** ![yann](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/y/bc79bd/32.png) [@yann](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/u/yann)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 5:11pm UTC](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/limit-how-many-backups-are-kept/8784/8 "2026-02-25T17:11:43Z")

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Actually, this won’t work without changing “Name” to “Full Name”. See [this](https://www.noodlesoft.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=17070&p=43283&hilit=full+name#p43281) for more info.