Upgrading TMs leads to huge increase in file size - is it possible to reduce it?

Question

Hello, 
 I've recently upgraded a TM which went from 285 MB to 1G. This creates huge packaqes, long download times and disk space issues. Is it possible to reduce the TM size? Or how can we best handle large TMs with our translators? 
 Thanks, 
 Valerie

Paul · Accepted Answer

hsteinier 
 
Have you used Project TMs? One purpose of these is to ensure you only include a TM that contains material relevant to the translation and are therefore smaller. 
 
You can't reduce the size of an upgraded TM without recreating it without the additional information used for upLIFT features.

Paul · Answer

Unknown said: How can I make 'Project TM' 
 When you create a project, a standard project and not a single file translation project, you are asked whether you wish to " Prepare without project TM " which is the default, or " Prepare ". There are other options but these two are the relevant task sequences for this discussion. 
 " Prepare without project TM " This will create the project and include any TM you have added to the project and subsequently insoide a Project Package if you choose. It uses the whole TM. 
 " Prepare " This will create the project as above, but it will use the TMs you selected to create a smaller TM that only consists of TUs that match the content of your Project. It will use the fuzzy match lookup settings to decide how much to include. So if you the default setting of 70% fuzzy it will include any TUs that would provide a 70% fuzzy match lookup and above. 
 The advantage of this is you can prepare your Project Package and include a smaller, yet still relevant, TM for the recipients of your package to use and you don't have to send a huge translation memory. 
 There are other benefits... for example. If you like to keep tweaking your translation and don't want to commit it to your TM until you have finished your final review then instead of not confirming your work (which I have seen some people do) you can use a Project TM. When you work it will all be saved into the Project TM and not into your Main TM. You will still get results from your Main TM so having a larger TM for concordance can be useful for example, but you won't actually add any of your work to your Main TM. Then when you are completely happy you can run the Update Main TM batch task and this will also update your Main TM. Funnily enough this is often the reason for some users thinking nothing is updated to their TM as they work. They prepared the project using a project TM and then keep checking inside their Main TM to see the results... which are not there yet!

Paul · Answer

Unknown said: I have failed to find " Prepare without project TM " which is the default, or " Prepare " 
 It's a Task Sequence, not a Project Setting. You'll always see this when you create your project in the last step.

Paul · Answer

Unknown said: I have never used 'upLIFT' function and feels like will never use it. It is not so good choice to make TMs larger 3 times then ever. 
 It certainly does increase the size, although this is less of an issue these days than it used to be. But the benefits can be quite uplifting (excuse the pun!). Having these subsegment matches available to you in the TM as smaller TUs massively increases the leverage that is available to you from your Translation Memory, and opens the possibility for fuzzy match repair which can significantly reduce the editing you need to carry out on fuzzy matches for example. 
 I think a lot of users upgraded their TM but then have not set up the use of upLIFT correctly and as a result still don't get the full experience. This article is quite helpful in that regard: 
 https://signsandsymptomsoftranslation.com/2016/11/17/studio-2017-uplift/

Paul · Answer

Unknown said: So, you are saying that there is no way to reduce the 3 times enlarged TM. 
 It's a bit like trying to fit a gallon of water into a pint glass ;-) The upgrade process adds more information into your TM database than you had before. 
 Unknown said: The goal of my testing is so simple. Why do I have to "Upgrade" my current TMs ? But, like I said I have failed to "Upgrade" a TM 
 You upgrade to use upLIFT. The unfortunate thing, in my opinion , is that we force the upgrade. I don't think we should do this. If you don't want to take advantage of upLIFT then you should not be forced to. 
 Unknown said: 
 Conclusion 
 Do not try to "Upgrade TM" There is not way to reduce the 3 times expanded TMs siz 
 
 I'd add something to this as this would only be your own conclusion. 
 Do not try to "Upgrade TM" unless you want the upLIFT features There is no way to reduce the 3 times expanded TM size

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Upgrading TMs leads to huge increase in file size - is it possible to reduce it?