Storage Triage

Storage triage

Because Gubbins stores everything on your device, its data takes up real storage — mostly images and history. The storage triage dashboard shows where the space is going and helps you reclaim it safely.

Where to find it: the storage triage entry in Settings → Data & storage (and from the storage-space banner if you're running low).

Seeing where space goes

Triage breaks down your storage per table — how much is images, how much is history, and so on — so you can see what's actually filling it up before deciding what to do.

Reclaiming space

Two safe cleanups, each keeping a copy of anything it removes:

• Prune old history — trim the activity log back. Gubbins offers a cold-storage export of the history it's about to remove first, so nothing is lost.
• Downgrade images — drop the full-resolution copy of old images while keeping their thumbnails, freeing significant space at the cost of detail you rarely need.

💡 Tip Downgrading images usually frees the most space fastest — thumbnails still show on cards and in lists, so day-to-day the app looks the same.

When storage is critically full

Gubbins warns you as space runs out, and takes two steps of its own so a full device can't quietly cost you your data:

• At 90% full — new photos are saved as thumbnails only. The full-resolution copy is not written, which is exactly what Downgrade images does to older photos, so the photo still appears everywhere it normally would. The photo grid tells you while this is in effect; free some space and full-resolution images resume for anything added afterwards.
• At 95% full — Gubbins pauses saving altogether. Only deletions are allowed, so you can always reclaim space and carry on.

The pause covers everything that would add data, not just editing a record: importing a file and restoring a backup are refused with a message saying storage is full, and cloud sync stops before it pulls anything down. Declining the write is deliberate — a database that runs out of room part-way through is far worse than one that says no.

💡 Tip Sending your data out keeps working, so you're never stuck with no way to preserve it: export a file, or publish to cloud sync if you haven't yet. Getting a copy off the device is a good first move before you start deleting.

⚠️ Heads-up A photo added while storage was critically full has no full-resolution copy to recover later — not from a backup either, because the copy was never made. Free space first if the detail matters.

ℹ️ Note Install Gubbins and grant persistent storage so the browser won't evict your data when the device runs low. Triage helps you manage space; persistent storage stops the browser reclaiming it out from under you.

⚠️ Heads-up Cleanups remove data from this device to save space. Keep a backup if you might want the full-resolution images or old history back later — the cold-storage export covers pruned history, but a backup is the complete safety net.

Related pages

• Backup & restore — a full copy before you prune.
• How your data is stored — why storage fills up.
• Activity log — the history you can prune.
• Self-hosting with Docker — worth knowing that running Gubbins on your own server does not give you more space: the data still lives in your browser.