Compact projects

Over time, project data on your local computer or an NVivo Collaboration Server server can become fragmented, causing performance problems (especially in large projects).

To ensure optimal performance, you should 'compact and repair' projects on a regular basis.

Compact and repair a project

  1. If the project is currently open, close it.
  2. Click File > Help > Compact and Repair Project.
  3. Select the project you want to compact and repair. Select NVivo Projects (*.nvp ) for standalone projects, or NVivo Server Projects for NVivo Collaboration Server projects.
  4. Click Open to start the compact and repair process.

NOTE

  • If NVivo detects that a project database has become corrupted but is repairable it will offer to repair it. A copy of the project is created before attempting repair. Sometimes repair is successful but some data files are missed from the new project—in such cases the missing files are listed so you can reimport them manually (you will need to redo any coding, annotations etc. on these files, however). If database repair fails, NVivo will offer to restore a backup recovery file Project recovery files.
  • If you select an earlier version NVivo project (version 7 to 12) to compact and repair, the project is copied and converted to a new NVivo (release 1) project before compact and repair proceeds—the original project is not changed.

NOTE Compacting Collaboration Server projects

  • You must be a project owner or administrator to compact and repair an NVivo Collaboration Server project.
  • Warn other users before starting a compact and repair, otherwise they are disconnected without warning.