File Size has Doubled but I only Moved some of my Tables to a New Tab?

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Level 1

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File Size has Doubled but I only Moved some of my Tables to a New Tab?

I had a file v107 that was 33mb. I saved it as v108 and moved some of the tables in it, into a new tab, but noticed it was slower, not faster and now it has a file size of 66mb?

The images show most of the tables in the Sheet. There are 12 tables not visible for the chart controller functionality and they have remained the tab with the charts.

Not sure why file v108 has nearly doubled in size?

Cheers!

[Edited by Moderator]

MacBook Pro 16″

Posted on May 16, 2025 3:46 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Yellowbox

Level 7

21,927 points

Jun 13, 2025 12:57 AM in response to Bardonicloud

Hi Bardonicloud,

Bardonicloud wrote:

I move the tables by copying and pasting them into a new tab and then delete the original tables.

Instead of copy and paste, what happens with cut and paste?

What happens if you select all the tables with command click, then cut and paste into a new Sheet?

Regards,

Ian.

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Answer 2

SGIII

Level 8

37,532 points

Jun 13, 2025 1:39 AM in response to Bardonicloud

And just a wild guess (have no idea whether it will "work" or not) you could try going to Numbers > Advanced > Change File type and try switching the type there (and back).

SG

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Answer 3

Bardonicloud Author

Level 1

51 points

Jun 10, 2025 6:19 AM in response to Badunit

The doubling of file size has just happened again on another version of this project, from 32mb to 70mb but with the exact same conditions.

I move the tables by copying and pasting them into a new tab and then delete the original tables.

It's like the 20 tables have been deleted and now I have two lots of them (based on file size), the old ones now being invisible but obviously still there in some kind of cache form.

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Answer 4

Bardonicloud Author

Level 1

51 points

May 17, 2025 5:09 AM in response to Bardonicloud

It's like I've moved the 20 BSM engine tables from the main tab to another tab but maybe Numbers still thinks they're still there like a cache issue? (Although in the main tab there is now a blank space where the BSM tables once were).

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Answer 5

Bardonicloud Author

Level 1

51 points

May 26, 2025 12:41 AM in response to Camelot

I used File (Option) / "Save As" as I have been doing with this project but couldn't understand why doing something that should help processing speed (moving lots of large tables from the main page) made it slower.

What would be the best option normally, Duplicate or Save As?

Cheers.

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Answer 6

Bardonicloud Author

Level 1

51 points

Jun 15, 2025 1:20 PM in response to Yellowbox

Thanks, a partial success! I say partial because the original file I experimented with is 29mb and using cut and paste didn't double it like copy and paste has done in the past, but has added 10 mb to now make the file 39mb when closed.

I am wondering why the extra 10mb, if all I have done is move tables to a new tab?

Regards,

Bard

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Answer 7

Bardonicloud Author

Level 1

51 points

Jun 16, 2025 9:59 AM in response to Yellowbox

Interestingly I just did another cut and paste on a later version of the file (only had a few modifications to the one I mentioned above) and the file size -- using cut and paste -- has remained exactly the same and it didn't add any mb, I am not sure why? Maybe the clipboard got saved on the version I first mentioned at the top of this question, when I used copy and paste version, although I don't recall seeing a "save the clipboard" message before quitting. I didn't get a save clipboard prompt for the file that became 10mb heavier. Odd.

Cheers.

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Answer 8

Badunit

Level 7

30,342 points

May 16, 2025 8:03 AM in response to Bardonicloud

Versioning?

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Answer 9

Bardonicloud Author

Level 1

51 points

May 17, 2025 1:25 AM in response to Badunit

I am unsure how else anyone would continue to make changes to a document without changing the name? None of the other 100 plus name changes have resulted in a doubling of file size?

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Answer 10

Bardonicloud Author

Level 1

51 points

May 20, 2025 9:22 AM in response to Bardonicloud

Is there a reason why this has happened and a solution? Thanks.

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Answer 11

Camelot

Level 9

58,257 points

May 20, 2025 12:17 PM in response to Bardonicloud

There may be some internal tracking for versioning, undo buffers, etc. that's affecting the file size.

I couldn't replicate this myself, but I also don't have any spreadsheets near that size, so my differences may not be so noticeable.

My question would be how you made the new copy. Did you duplicate the file in the Finder? or did you choose File -> Duplicate from within Numbers? There could be a difference between them, although I admit I'm at a loss to explain such a large file size discrepancy.

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File Size has Doubled but I only Moved some of my Tables to a New Tab?

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