# Frequently Asked Questions

## Why does `data.ms` appear to be 2TB?

Tunarr uses [Meilisearch](https://www.meilisearch.com/) for search functionality. Meilisearch creates a file called `data.ms` in the Tunarr configuration directory that may appear to be approximately 2TB in size. **This file is NOT actually taking up 2TB of disk space.**

The `data.ms` file is a [sparse file](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparse_file), which means it only allocates disk blocks for data that has actually been written. The reported size is the *virtual* size, while the actual disk usage is typically only a few megabytes.

You can verify the actual disk usage with:

```bash
# Linux/macOS - shows actual blocks used
du -h /path/to/tunarr/.tunarr/data.ms

# Compare with apparent size
ls -lh /path/to/tunarr/.tunarr/data.ms
```

### Excluding `data.ms` from backups

Since `data.ms` is a sparse file that can be regenerated by Meilisearch, you may want to exclude it from manual backups to avoid issues with backup tools that don't handle sparse files well.

**rsync:**

```bash
rsync -av --exclude='data.ms' /path/to/tunarr/.tunarr/ /backup/destination/
```

**tar (with sparse file support):**

```bash
# Use --sparse flag to handle sparse files efficiently
tar --sparse -cvf backup.tar /path/to/tunarr/.tunarr/

# Or exclude it entirely
tar --exclude='data.ms' -cvf backup.tar /path/to/tunarr/.tunarr/
```

**Duplicati:**

Add `data.ms` to your exclusion filters in the backup configuration.

**Borg Backup:**

```bash
borg create --exclude '*/data.ms' /path/to/repo::backup /path/to/tunarr/.tunarr/
```

**restic:**

```bash
restic backup --exclude 'data.ms' /path/to/tunarr/.tunarr/
```

!!! tip
    The Meilisearch index can be rebuilt automatically by Tunarr, so excluding `data.ms` from backups is generally safe, so long as the `ms-snapshots` directory is preserved. After restoring a backup without this file, Tunarr will recreate the search index on startup.
